The Great Britain pound rose against the Japanese yen today as construction made a pleasant surprise, unexpectedly expanding last month, adding to signs of recovery. The currency was little changed against the US dollar and the euro.
The Markit/CIPS UK Construction Purchasing Managers’ Index advanced from 49.4 in April to 50.8 in May, beating analysts’ expectations. It was the highest level and the first reading above 50.0 (which means expansion) since October 2012. On top of that, the Retail Sales Monitor of British Retail Consortium showed an increase of 1.8 percent in May after the 2.2 percent drop in April.
The recent string of reports from the United Kingdom was very good and supported view that the economy is on track to recovery. Surprisingly enough, it did not allow the sterling to rally much, though helped the currency to halt the earlier drop.
GBP/JPY advanced from 152.43 to 153.32 as of 22:35 GMT today. GBP/USD was virtually unchanged at 1.5310. EUR/GBP traded at 0.8540 after opening at 0.8532.
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