The pound was briefly supported by statistics. Overview for 17.02.2016

17.02.2016
The GBP/USD pair rose sharply after a block of macroeconomic statistics for the UK, but was not able to keep the momentum.

This afternoon the British Pound strongly reacted to the published macroeconomic statistics. The growing momentum, however, was short-lived, and the pair could not sustain yesterday's peaks. The current quotation of the instrument is 1.4300.

According to the presented statistics, the unemployment rate in the UK remained unchanged at 5.1% for the fourth quarter of 2015, which is the minimum in nearly six years. The forecasts were more optimistic and expected an improvement in the indicator to 5%. The number of British employees has increased markedly and at the end of the year amounted to 31.24 million. This is 74.1% of the population. The number of claims for unemployment benefits decreased by 14.8 thousand and amounted to 760.2 thousand people. This is also a minimum, but since 1975.

So the labour market is quite optimistic in the UK. However, the actual wage growth slowed at the beginning of this year. While this is not alarming, it is just unpleasant. But if February and March show a confirmation in trends, it will be another story.

It is very important for the UK to keep these achievements. The stability of the labour market may contribute to the earlier decisions of the Bank of England on the rate. For now, the predictions about the timing are very cautious - about the end of 2016 at best, but 2017 is more likely. The Bank of England is known for its conservative fiscal approach and will not make important steps without being confident in the prospects.
 
RoboForex Analytical Department

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Forecasts presented in this section only reflect the author’s private opinion and should not be considered as guidance for trading. RoboForex bears no responsibility for trading results based on trading recommendations described in these analytical reviews.