- Pound (GBP) rises after 2 days of declines
- UK CBI retail sales rise
- Euro (EUR) struggles after weak data
- ECB speakers are in focus
The Pound Euro (GBP/EUR) exchange rate is falling after two days of gains. The pair rose 0.26% in the previous session, settling on Monday at €1.1546 and trading in a range between €1.1488 – €1.1539. At 06:35 UTC, GBP/EUR trades -0.07% at €1.1518.
The pound gained ground against the euro in the previous session, helped higher by encouraging sales data from the Confederation of British Industry. The CBI reported that British retailers saw a smaller annual fall in sales for September than in the previous month and expected a modest improvement in the coming months.
The CBI’s September monthly retail sales showed that headline retail sales rose to -14 a three-month high up from August’s -44, which marked a two-year low.
Today, there is no high impacting UK economic data. Still, the pound could struggle to push much higher after the Bank of England left interest rates on pause last week, and amid rising concerns over the health of the UK economy.
The euro fell lower despite weak data. German IFO business confidence unexpectedly fell for a fourth straight month in September to 85.7, This was ahead of forecasts of a fall to 85.2.
Meanwhile, ECB president Christine Lagarde affirmed the ECB’s determination to return inflation to 2%. She reiterated that the central bank would keep interest rates elevated for as long as necessary in order to rein in consumer prices even as the economy struggles. She didn’t give any clues on how long interest rates may remain elevated. However, ECB governing council member and French governor Francoise Villeroy said that the ECB shouldn’t test the economy until it breaks, hinting that he would prefer not to raise interest rates any further.
Looking ahead there is no high-impacting eurozone economic data due to be released today investors will be looking ahead to eurozone inflation which is due out on Friday.
