UK: Pound Back on Track? - Investec
Research Team at Investec, suggests that hot on the heels of Wednesday’s
Ipsos Mori poll, Sterling ascendancy continued in early trading
yesterday after UK retail sales figures for April posted a bigger
rebound than expected, retracing the entire fall seen in March, which in
itself has seen a positive revision.
Key Quotes
“Headline retail sales rose 1.3% m/m rebounding from the 0.5% fall seen
in March (-1.3% previous estimate) and beating both market and our own
expectations of a +0.6% gain. GBPUSD promptly moved back above 1.4600
while GBPEUR consolidated recent gains and held above 1.3000.
Back home and in a speech to London Business School, MPC member Vlieghe
commented that the UK economy has slowed and may require additional
stimulus if it doesn’t rebound quickly in the event of Britons opting to
stay in the European Union. The comments suggest Vlieghe may vote to
ease policy even if Britons choose to remain part of the EU on June 23.
Taking questions after the speech, he said if additional stimulus was
needed, “both rate cuts and more quantitative easing should be on the
table.”
