The Great Britain pound dropped against the US dollar today but rose versus the euro and the Japanese yen. The minutes of the latest central bank’s policy meeting revealed that some policy makers want to raise interest rates. UK employment data was good, supporting the currency.
The Bank of England minutes showed that the Monetary Policy Committee voted unanimously to keep the asset-purchase program at £375 billion. Yet the MPC members Martin Weale and Ian McCafferty voted for the fifth consecutive time to raise interest rates by 25 basis points.
As for the employment report, the number of Britons applying for unemployment benefits fell 26,900 in November from the previous month, more than was expected. Average weekly earnings rose 1.4 percent in the third quarter of this year from a year ago, exceeding forecasts and the previous quarter’s growth.
All in all, news was positive for the sterling, but the currency was unable to outperform the dollar that was too strong ahead of the Federal Reserve’s policy decision.
GBP/USD dropped from 1.5748 to 1.5647 as of 17:40 GMT today. EUR/GBP was down from 0.7941 to 0.7932 but bounced from the daily low of 0.7910. GBP/JPY advanced from 183.31 to 183.91, reaching the high of 184.69 intraday.
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