The Great Britain pound was generally soft today, dragged down mostly by the market sentiment. Domestic employment data was mixed, providing both positive and negative surprises, and therefore giving no help for the currency in finding direction.
The Office for National Statistics reported that the unemployment rate fell to 3.8% in the three months through March from 3.9% in the previous reporting period. That was the lowest level of unemployment since October-December 1974.
But average weekly earnings rose just 3.2% in the first three months of this year compared with the similar period of the previous year. That was a slowdown from the 3.5% increase registered in the previous month. Furthermore, the actual value missed the consensus forecast of a 3.4% increase. The wage inflation miss supported the view that the Bank of England will not hike interest rates this year even after Governor Mark Carney suggested a hike should not be ruled out.
But macroeconomic data had limited impact on the currency today as it remained under influence of the same themes as yesterday — the Brexit drama and the US-China trade war.
GBP/USD dropped from 1.2958 to 1.2906 as of 19:59 GMT today. EUR/GBP rallied from 0.8661 to 0.8683. GBP/JPY traded at 141.44 after opening at 141.63 and rising to the daily high of 142.16.
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