The pound fell against the majority of the 16 most actively traded currencies yesterday ahead of the key policy announcement from The Bank of England, due at midday today.
Analysts believe that despite data out in the last two weeks showing that the UK avoided the so-called ‘triple-dip’ recession, the economic outlook is still so poor that the Bank may consider extending its bond buying program, commonly known as Quantitative Easing (QE) in order to further stimulate economic activity.
Yesterday, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) visited the UK and reported that the UK has experienced one of the slowest recoveries of all developed economies as they began their annual ‘health check’ of the UK economy.
Analysts believe that the IMF will reiterate its advice to Chancellor George Osborne to tone down his austerity policies and suggest tax cuts and further infrastructure spending programmes should be put in place to stimulate economic growth.
Meanwhile, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) suggested that the UK has suffered a slower economic recovery than 23 of the 33 advanced economies monitored by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). They say that research, based on the IMF's latest GDP forecasts reveal that the UK risks enduring a 'lost decade of growth', while many of its economic rivals forge ahead and that the UK is emerging from the recession at a slower rate than after previous recessions in the early 1980’s and the early 1990’s.
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) reported yesterday that the value of UK retail sales fell by 2.2% on a like-for-like basis in April 2013 versus a year ago, when they declined by 3.3% on the preceding year.
Helen Dickinson, Director General of the British Retail Consortium said "On the surface these are really poor figures but they're hiding another respectable month (…) this was actually a better month than March, especially for non-food sales.”
Overnight, Graeme Wheeler, the Governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) confirmed that the RBNZ has intervened in the foreign exchange market to weaken the New Zealand dollar.
Governor Wheeler was speaking at a briefing for the bi-annual Financial Stability Report stated that the currency was 'significantly overvalued' and indicated that the central bank stands ready to intervene again, if necessary.
The announcement from New Zealand came just one day after the Reserve Bank of Australia decided to cut its key interest rate by 0.25% to a record low margin of 2.75%.
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