Sterling steady following key data releases
| No surprises in US inflation data yesterday or from the UK GDP release today.. |
| The Pound has got through a tough couple of days unscathed, thanks to economists calling correctly both the US inflation number and UK GDP number. It means Sterling should finish the week up by 0.3%-0.8% against the majority of other currencies, building on a positive result last week. Although the headline US inflation number rose slightly from 3.1% to 3.4% (3.2% forecast) in December, it did little in terms of volatility as a small increase was expected anyway. The more important core inflation number fell from 4% to 3.9% (3.8% forecast), which again meant the release was effectively a non-event on the FX market. Today's UK GDP result was much of the same, as the nation it flirts with recession levels. The good news was that November's GDP was in growth at 0.3%, slightly better than forecast (0.2%) and a relief from October's horrible -0.3% figure. But construction output, industrial production and manufacturing production all missed consensus. |
