Money News Overview Tuesday 6th August: Pound Sterling on the retreat

CPI inflation, which was the most significant piece of data, came in significantly below the market consensus at 1.7 percent.

Today’s economic calendar is light in terms of economic data releases. Already released this morning, the number of new purchase orders in Germany increased by 3.9 percent in June (forecasted 0.5%).

In the Eurozone, investors will keep a close eye on the retail sales data. Markets are pricing in a marginal fall by – 0.1 percent in June.

Over the course of the last week, the markets have experienced increased volatility following the Bank of England’s close call (5-4 vote in favour of a cut) to reduce interest rates.

The Pound has been on the retreat and has lost much of its year-to-date gains against the Euro. It was only last month that GBPEUR hit a two-year high trading above 1.1900.

GBPUSD has moved 150 pips since the beginning of this month. The fall in the number of new jobs added (down for the second time this year) and the rise of the unemployment rate to 4.3 percent has placed pressure on the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates promptly.