- Pound (GBP) rebounded firmly ahead of BoE rate decision on Thursday
- Public sector net borrowing (PSNB) in focus
- Euro (EUR) supported by weaker US Dollar
- Eurozone consumer confidence
The Pound Euro (GBP/EUR) exchange rate is slipping lower after strong gains in the previous session. The pair settled +0.4% higher at €1.1690, at the high of the day. At 05:45 UTC, GBP/EUR trades -0.05% at €1.1683.
The Pound pushed higher in the previous session as investors shrugged off ongoing Brexit tensions and rising covid cases and instead focused on the Bank of England’s interest rate decision later in the week.
The BoE is not expected to adjust monetary policy, but it could well start to adopt a more hawkish outlook given the improving performance of the UK economy. Economic growth is gaining momentum as the economy reopens after the pandemic lockdown restrictions and inflation has topped the BoE’s 2% target, paving the way for a more upbeat central bank which could look to at least talking about reining ultra-loose monetary policy.
Before the BoE rate announcement on Thursday, investors will digest public sector net borrowing figures. Last month the data revealed that the UK government’s covid response kept governing borrowing high. The government continued to borrow heavily at £31.7 billion as it supported workers on furlough and implemented measured to support the economic recovery. Expectations are for net borrowing to reach £26.1 billion in May as more workers come off furlough.
The Euro lost ground versus the Pound on Monday, despite being supported by a weaker US Dollar, which was correcting from deeply overbought conditions.
There was no high impacting Eurozone data, instead all eyes were on European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde. Whilst Lagarde acknowledged the brightening outlook for the region as the covid situation improves, she was still very clear that tightening monetary policy would be premature and would pose a risk to the ongoing economic recovery and the outlook for inflation.
Today investors will be looking towards the release of Eurozone consumer confidence data for further clues over the health of the economy. Analysts expect morale to tick higher to -2.9 in June up from -5.1.
