The Pound Sterling was higher against the Dollar and Euro today, taking a breather from a losing streak which had lasted six weeks. While the Brexit rhetoric and the voting for the next Prime Minister are still dominating Pound sentiment, a shift toward a more dovish outlook from many of the world's major central banks has helped to spark renewed interest in the Pound. Both the European Central Bank and the US Federal Reserve have expressed reservations about global growth. The same can't be said about the Bank of England, as members of the Monetary Policy Committee had said that they expected rates to rise sooner than anticipated. Nonetheless, analysts don't believe that the MPC will commit at the upcoming policy meeting.
As reported at 11:18 am (GMT) in London, the EUR/GBP was trading lower at 0.8910 Pence, down 0.0617%; the pair has ranged from a trough of 0.88999 Pence to a high of 0.89270 Pence. The GBP/USD was higher at $1.2579, up 0.2119% and off the session peak of $1.2587.
Data Also Provides Support to GBP
A slew of data points was released by the UK's Office of National Statistics earlier, with the most critical data the May consumer inflation reading; as expected, CPI (year-over-year) came in at 2.0%, down from the 2.1% in the previous reading; core CPI was 1.7%, as analysts had predicted. On a month-over-month basis, CPI fell to 0.3%, as predicted, down from 0.6%. Retail Prices in the UK in May were upbeat at 3.0% (year-over-year), unchanged from the previous reading but higher than the 2.9% that had been predicted.