Sterling climbs to highest since August with Fed, ECB cuts weighing

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Bank (ECB) and the U.S. Federal Reserve might be closer to cutting interest rates than the Bank of England (BoE).

The pound rose 0.18% to $1.2826, after hitting its highest since August against a weakening dollar. It was set for its sharpest weekly jump against the greenback since November, up 1.4% this week.

Against the euro, sterling rose 0.35% to 85.17 pence, after jumping to a more than three week high. It was on track for its biggest weekly rise against the single currency since early January, up 0.5%.

Analysts said sterling's firmness this week was less a product of the UK fiscal outlook and more related to pressure on the dollar and euro after Fed Chair Jerome Powell sounded more confident about cutting interest rates in coming months, while the ECB's governing council had begun to discuss a suitable timeline for monetary policy easing.

«We think the BoE is likely to wait somewhat longer than the Fed and the ECB to start easing policy,» said Karsten Junius, chief economist at J. Safra Sarasin Sustainable Asset Management.

«The main reason for this delayed reaction is that so far, the fall of services inflation and wage growth has been very limited, suggesting that underlying inflation might be stickier than elsewhere,» Junius said.

Money markets are pricing in a BoE interest cut only in August, according the LSE Group data. Markets see a first Fed cut in June, according to CME Group.

Next week brings a raft of UK data, including gross domestic product and wage inflation — a key focus for the BoE.
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