Sterling has spiked further against the dollar and other currencies after strong retail sales and minutes of the latest Monetary Policy Committee meeting stirred up the rate hike debate.
Minutes of the MPC's May meeting revealed rate setters are edging closer to a decision to hike interest rates, while UK retail sales in April reached the strongest level of annual growth since 2004. The two announcements, published at the same time, pushed sterling to an intra-day high of $1.6920 against the dollar, up from $1.6887, earlier this morning. Although all MPC members voted to keep interest rates and gilt purchases unchanged, economists suggest some rate setters are not far off from voting for a rate hike. "For some members the monetary policy decision was becoming more ...
To continue reading this article...
Join Investment Week for free
Signup and gain exclusive members-only insights - all free of charge!
- Unlimited access to real-time news, analysis and opinion from the investment industry, including the Sustainable Hub covering fund news from the ESG space
- Get ahead of regulatory and technological changes affecting fund management
- Important and breaking news stories selected by the editors delivered straight to your inbox each day
- Weekly members-only newsletter with exclusive opinion pieces from leading industry experts
- Be the first to hear about our extensive events schedule and awards programmes
