Weekly Gains of Pound on Favorable Economic Data & EU Problems

The Great Britain pound surged this week against the euro as the debt problems in the Eurozone attracted the investors to the perceived safety of Britain’s currency. The sterling also gained versus other currencies, including the US dollar and the Japanese yen.

The favorable macroeconomic reports, including the reports about the retail sales, the manufacturing production and the leading indicators, supported the sterling versus other currencies. Still, some negative reports were also released, including the reports about the declining industrial production, curbing the gains. The fiscal crisis in Europe allowed the pound to perform against the euro better than against other currencies, showing the stronger rally.

The pound rose 0.1 percent in the last month, against the basket of 10 developed-country currencies, but fell 3.7 percent this year. That’s still better result than the euro’s yearly decline by 9.5 percent. The Bank of England maintained the official Bank Rate at 0.5 percent and the stock of asset purchases at £200 billion.

GBP/USD went up from 1.5766 to 1.5809 this week, despite falling as low as 1.5654 on Monday. EUR/GBP dropped from 0.8394 to 0.8365. GBP/JPY rose from 130.38 to 132.69 this week, while it reached the weekly low of 129.52 on Tuesday.

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