Pound Soft Despite Improving RICS House Price Balance

The Great Britain pound traded either flat or lower against its most-traded rivals today. Housing data released overnight showed a slight improvement in the market, but it provided little support to the currency.
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors reported that the headline house price balance improved to -4% in August from -9% in July. Experts were expecting a small decline to -10%. Simon Rubinsohn, RICS Chief Economist, said that Brexit fears remain the major negative factor to the market:

It is hard to get away from the shadow being cast over the housing market by the seemingly never-ending Brexit saga. Indeed, uncertainty is a theme that respondents continue to highlight as a negative influence on sentiment in survey after survey. That said, the key RICS activity indicators have actually remained relatively resilient until now pointing to only a modest dip in transactions across the country rather than anything more severe.

GBP/USD traded at about 1.2320 as of 10:58 GMT today, near the opening level of 1.2328. EUR/GBP gained from 0.8929 to 0.8948.

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