Pound up in early trading

27 September, 2013

Robin Haynes

The Pound has benefitted in early trading this morning, after Bank of England Governor Mark Carney gave an interview saying that the UK recovery had “strengthened and broadened”. In his view this means that, unless the economy falters, there will be no need to extend Quantitative Easing (QE) any further.

QE has been one of the main factors hindering the Pound in recent years and an extension was seen as likely, so the news that the main decision maker is against this has given sterling a boost. The Pound rose around half a cent against the Euro and US Dollar at 6am today when the interview was published.

Also helping sterling this morning was UK house price data, which showed house price inflation running at 5%, against expectations of 4.5%.

Today we have European Central Bank President, Mario Draghi, giving a speech at 10am, and German inflation at 1pm, both of which could cause volatility for the Euro. The week is finished off by US consumption figures at 1.30pm before next week sees us head into October with the usual round of economic releases through the week.