The pound eased against the euro yesterday after the Confederation of British Industry’s (CBI) Distributive Trades Sales Index dropped sharply from a reading of 34 in December 2013 to just 14 in January. The slowdown in sales seems to have been partly due to the impact of the “unseasonably mild weather” on fashion retailers who saw a sharp slump in sales.
Last night, the Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney speaking at the Davos economic summit insisted that he does not see any need for an immediate increase in UK interest rates despite the UK unemployment rate falling this week to 7.1% against the Bank of England’s threshold rate of 7%.
This dampened speculation about the possibility of a rate hike in the UK.
Carney warned against focusing on any one individual indicator of the labour market, such as the unemployment rate, emphasising instead that it was really about the overall condition of the economy.
The euro also found support yesterday by the decision from credit ratings agency Fitch Ratings to maintain its top-notch rating for the leading euro zone economy, Germany. Fitch also maintained its stable outlook citing the decline in the public debt levels.
The Fitch report stated that “The general government debt to GDP ratio (GGGD) has already started to fall in Germany, unlike its 'AAA' rated euro zone peers or France (AA+/Stable), UK (AA+/Stable) and the US (AAA/RWN)”.
With no significant data out anywhere today, the markets are likely to be driven by sentiment and headlines out of Davos.
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