Sterling stays down versus euro

13 Nov, 2004

Sterling fell to a 10-month low against the euro for a third successive day on Friday, as expectations that interest rates have peaked continued to weigh on the pound. Currency watchers will look to a batch of UK economic data out next week for further confirmation that rates are not likely to rise further than the current 4.75 percent.
On Tuesday, the October housing survey from the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and the consumer price index for the same month will be released.
They will be followed by the minutes from this month's Bank of England policy meeting and labour market statistics on Wednesday. Retail sales data is due out on Thursday.
"We're going into a huge week for UK data. People are expecting the housing report to be weak and that will put sterling under pressure," said Paul Mackel, foreign exchange strategist at ABN Amro.
"People seem to be comfortable pushing it beyond 70 pence," he added.
By 1505 GMT, the pound was trading at 69.85 pence per euro reversing losses after hitting a 10-month low of 70.13 pence earlier in the session. It was up a third of a percent on the day.
Against the dollar, the pound stood at $1.8491, up 0.4 percent from the New York close.
The pound was shaken this week by a dovish inflation report from the Bank Of England on Wednesday.
The Bank has raised interest rates five times in the past year and signs are now that tighter monetary policy is slowing down house price inflation and Britain's once-booming property market is calming down.
Sterling's trade weighted index, which has a euro weighting of 64.82 percent, a dollar weighting of 16.49 percent and a yen one of 7.0 percent, hovered near a 10-month low.

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