LONDON: Sterling turned slightly lower against a recovering dollar and hit its lowest in more than a week against the euro on Wednesday, after data showed a doubling of consumer price inflation in Britain in April.
British consumer prices rose by 1.5% in April, the Office for National Statistics said, following a 0.7% rise in March. A Reuters poll of economists had pointed to an increase of 1.4%.
The Bank of England says inflation in Britain is heading above its 2% target and will hit 2.5% at the end of 2021 thanks to a rise in global oil prices and the expiry in September of COVID-19 emergency cuts to value-added tax in the hospitality sector, as well as comparisons with the pandemic slump of 2020.
The BoE thinks inflation will then slip back to 2% in 2022 and 2023.
Sterling was 0.3% lower against the dollar by 1451 GMT, trading at $1.4149, below the $1.42 mark crossed on Tuesday.
Against the euro, the pound was 0.3% lower at 86.39 pence, having earlier hitting its lowest since May 10 against the single currency at 86.33 pence.
After the Canadian dollar and Norwegian crown, sterling is the third best-performing G10 currency against the dollar year-to-date, helped by hopes of an economic rebound enabled by Britain’s rapid vaccination programme.
The Bank of England’s tapering of its asset purchase programme has also helped the pound gain relative to its peers in the G10 group of currencies, most of which have central banks that are still keeping monetary policy loose.
Money market pricing of BoE rate hikes after the inflation data were just a shade higher.
Comments
Comments are closed.