GBP/NOK Consolidates Above 11.5200 before Year-End, Set for 4.8% Annual Gains 

Monday’s trade saw GBP/NOK within the range 11.5131-11.5905. The pair closed 0.21% higher at 11.5610 and was set for a 4.8% annual gain. GBP has lost roughly 5.9% of its value against Norway’s Krone in the past two weeks alone due to concerns over a hard-Brexit scenario.

GBP/NOK bounced from the intraday low area on Monday after a report by trade association UK Finance stated banks had approved 43 700 mortgages for new house purchase in November, or the highest number since January 2017. In October, mortgage approvals were reported at 41 200, or the least since March. 

Meanwhile, an earlier report by Statistics Norway showed household consumption of goods had increased at a monthly 1.1% in November, as purchases of food, beverages and tobacco surged 1.8% and those of other goods went up 1.4%. It has been the sharpest monthly increase since June. 

Retail sales in the country surged at a monthly rate of 1.0% in November, or the most since April and rebounding after a 0.7% drop in October. Taking retail sales seasonality aside, recent data points have been largely in unison with comfortably low levels of unemployment throughout the year. 

The spread between 2-year Norwegian and 2-year UK bond yields, which reflects the flow of funds in a short term, shrank to 0.696% (69.6 basis points) on December 30th, from 0.753% (75.3 basis points) on December 27th.

In terms of economic calendar, the United Kingdom and Norway are not scheduled to release any relevant reports today. Market players are likely to focus on the key UK manufacturing and construction data as well as on Norwegian reports on manufacturing activity and unemployment, scheduled for release at the end of this week. 

GBP/NOK was little changed at 11.5591 in late Asian session on Tuesday.


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