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Sterling climbed to a 2 month high against the euro yesterday as strong inflation figures buoyed.
CPI rose to 1.5% against a consensus view of 1.4%. There is the possibility this will not last however and, like the Bank of England warned last week, CPI will probably spend more time below its target rate of 2% than above it.
Sterling’s move was kept in check by a comment from Bank of England director Andrew Sentance. He said yesterday that emergency stimulus (quantitative easing) measures for the U.K. economy had better remain in place for an undetermined period. “We have to be open-minded” about more quantitative easing, Sentance added, even though he thought that the recession in the U.K. had come to an end.
Sterling gets another chance to jump today with the Bank of England minutes from this month’s meeting. This is of course the meeting when they decided to raise rates by a less than expected £25bn. The all important factor is the split of votes and where those other votes went. If those who didn’t vote for £25bln voted for no change sterling should rise. If however they voted for a £50bln expansion sterling will probably come under pressure, especially if Mervyn King was one of them after his August performance.
Dollar strengthened as well yesterday as equity markets began to look uncomfortable at their recent highs. The greenback was also helped by Ben Bernanke commenting on ‘strong’ dollar policy. The Chairman of the Fed said that they would “continue to monitor these developments closely” and that they were “attentive” to the implications of changes in the value of the US dollar.
Other than the Bank of England announcement we have US housing starts and US CPI at 13.30.
Latest Exchange Rates At Time Of Writing
| Indicative Rates | Sell | Buy |
| GBP/EUR | 1.1262 | 1.1287 |
| GBP/USD | 1.6793 | 1.6818 |
| EUR/USD | 1.4896 | 1.4918 |
| GBP/JPY | 149.65 | 149.97 |
| GBP/AUD | 1.803 | 1.8076 |
| GBP/NZD | 2.2516 | 2.2551 |
| GBP/CAD | 1.7658 | 1.7713 |
| NZD/USD | 0.7451 | 0.7471 |
| GBP/ZAR | 12.48 | 12.53 |
| USD/ZAR | 7.42 | 7.46 |
| GBP/PLN | 4.5999 | 4.628 |
| EUR/JPY | 132.64 | 133.1 |
