Blog

Pound hits $1.30 after positive UK Data

• Posted by currencies in Bank of England, Bremain, Brexit, Budget, Currency, Dollar, Economy, EUR, GBP, Inflation, Mark Carney, Prime Minister, Sterling, UK, Uncategorised
• June 29, 2017
• No Comments

Sterling climbed close to $1.30 today, hitting its highest since before Britain’s parliamentary elections, as investors brought forward their expectations for when the Bank of England would begin to tighten monetary policy.

BoE Governor Mark Carney said on Wednesday that a rise in interest rates was likely to be needed as the economy comes closer to running at full capacity, and that the Bank would debate this “in the coming months”.

Britain’s consumer borrowing and mortgage lending gathered momentum last month, suggesting economic growth will beat a weak start to 2017 as the Bank of England considers when to start to raise interest rates.

BoE data on today showed growth in unsecured consumer borrowing picked up to 10.2 percent on an annualised basis in the three months to May from April’s 9.7 percent, its joint highest reading since November.

The number of mortgages approved for house purchase rose to 65,202 in May, little changed from an upwardly revised reading in April but beating all economists’ forecasts in a Reuters poll.

In cash terms net consumer lending rose by 1.732 billion pounds last month, again beating all economists’ forecasts.