Pound Sterling trades lower at the start of BoE policy week

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Pound Sterling trades lower at the start of BoE policy week

The Pound Sterling is under pressure against its peers amid uncertainty ahead of the BoE’s monetary policy.
Investors expect the Fed and the BoE to leave interest rates unchanged.
The UK core CPI growth cooled down to 3.1% in March.

The Pound Sterling (GBP) faces selling pressure against its major currency peers, but is marginally higher against the US Dollar (USD) around 1.3545, during the European trading session on Monday. The British currency drops amid uncertainty surrounding the Bank of England’s (BoE) monetary policy announcement on Thursday.

Pound Sterling Price Today

The table below shows the percentage change of British Pound (GBP) against listed major currencies today. British Pound was the weakest against the New Zealand Dollar.

	USD	EUR	GBP	JPY	CAD	AUD	NZD	CHF
USD		-0.17%	-0.10%	-0.11%	-0.34%	-0.44%	-0.44%	-0.10%
EUR	0.17%		0.09%	0.06%	-0.16%	-0.24%	-0.25%	0.08%
GBP	0.10%	-0.09%		-0.04%	-0.28%	-0.36%	-0.36%	-0.01%
JPY	0.11%	-0.06%	0.04%		-0.22%	-0.33%	-0.35%	0.05%
CAD	0.34%	0.16%	0.28%	0.22%		-0.10%	-0.12%	0.25%
AUD	0.44%	0.24%	0.36%	0.33%	0.10%		0.00%	0.35%
NZD	0.44%	0.25%	0.36%	0.35%	0.12%	-0.01%		0.35%
CHF	0.10%	-0.08%	0.00%	-0.05%	-0.25%	-0.35%	-0.35%

The heat map shows percentage changes of major currencies against each other. The base currency is picked from the left column, while the quote currency is picked from the top row. For example, if you pick the British Pound from the left column and move along the horizontal line to the US Dollar, the percentage change displayed in the box will represent GBP (base)/USD (quote).

Market participants expect the BoE to leave interest rates unchanged at 3.75%, with an 8-1 majority, as the United Kingdom (UK) core Consumer Price Index (CPI) growth has squeezed in March, and higher oil prices in the wake of Middle East conflicts have raised uncertainty over the economic outlook.

BoE Chief Economist Huw Pill could be the one policymaker voting for an interest rate hike as he expressed the need to tighten monetary conditions, in an event last week, stressing the need to contain elevating price pressures.

However, BoE Governor Andrew Bailey stated, at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) meeting in Washington last week, that there is no rush for a monetary policy adjustment in the upcoming policy meeting on April 30 despite having a “very big negative shock”, Reuters reports.

Last week, the UK CPI report showed that the core inflation data – which excludes volatile items such as of food, energy, alcohol and tobacco – decelerated to 3.1% Year-on-Year (YoY) from the previous reading of 3.2%.

Ahead of the BoE‘s monetary policy announcement, investors await the Federal Reserve’s (Fed) policy on Wednesday. The Fed is also expected to hold interest rates steady in the current range of 3.50%-3.75% for the third time in a row.

Economic Indicator

BoE Interest Rate Decision

The Bank of England (BoE) announces its interest rate decision at the end of its eight scheduled meetings per year. If the BoE is hawkish about the inflationary outlook of the economy and raises interest rates it is usually bullish for the Pound Sterling (GBP). Likewise, if the BoE adopts a dovish view on the UK economy and keeps interest rates unchanged, or cuts them, it is seen as bearish for GBP.