Pound stays strong despite likely interest rate rise
Although Rightmove confirmed today that house prices fell 0.8% from a 0.1% increase in June, the UK’s cooling housing market is not expected to be enough to prevent the Bank of England from being the first major central bank to increase interest rates.
Yet the pound remained at about 0.6% from a five-year high versus the dollar, changing little at $1.7079 as of noon London time. It appreciated to $1.7192 last week, the highest since October 2008. Sterling was at 79.19 pence per euro after touching 78.89 on July 17, the strongest level since September 2012.
The pound has been the best-performing major currency in the past 12 months as a strengthening economy spurred bets central-bank officials led by Governor Mark Carney will increase borrowing costs in the first half of 2015. UK government bonds fell before a sale of 10-year debt tomorrow.
The pound rose 11% in the past 12 months, the best performer among 10 major currencies tracked by Bloomberg Correlation-Weighted Indexes. The euro rose 1.2%, while the dollar fell 2%.
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