The pound starts the week on the rise

Ahead of the latest Bank of England policy decision due out on Thursday, the pound rose against the majority of the 16 most actively traded currencies in the market yesterday supported by a survey commissioned by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) which showed that the pace of economic growth in the UK picked up in May to its fastest rate since 2003.

The CBI data showed that the outlook for the UK economy seems point towards a continuation of the strong growth experienced of late thanks to rising business and consumer confidence, better credit conditions at home and improving global economic conditions.

By contrast, the latest survey into the UK manufacturing sector from Markit and the Chartered Institute of Purchasing & Supply (CIPS) shows that activity slowed slightly in May, although the data shows that May is still the 15th month in a row of growth.

Encouragingly, the data shows that new export orders rose for the 14th month in a row in May with companies reporting a rise in demand from the US, Asia, Canada, Europe, the Middle East and New Zealand. In addition, manufacturing employment increased for the 13th month running.

Rob Dobson, Senior Economist at Markit said that although manufacturing was unlikely on its own to spark an early interest rate rise, further growth in another sector of the UK economy could force the Bank of England's hand adding that "With manufacturing still some 7.5% smaller than its pre-crisis peak, even at this current growth rate it would take until late-2015 to achieve full recovery. Sustaining the rebound and continuing to push to re-balance the UK economy towards manufacturing therefore remains critical."

in contrast, the latest data from the US disappointed with a weaker than expected US ISM manufacturing sector index reading to a 3 month low.

In the euro zone and ahead of Thursday crucial European Central Bank (ECB) policy decision, Germany’s Federal Statistics Office reported that German consumer prices (CPI) unexpected declined by 0.1% month-on-month in May.

Overnight, the latest housing data from China increased fears that the Chinese economy continues to slow down with the house price index for the country’s 100 biggest cities recording its first monthly drop for nearly two years. This simply added to long term concerns surrounding the Chinese property market, including speculation that prices in some provinces could collapse. Housing inventories have soared and liquidity among smaller developers has continued to evaporate which has led to the state controlled Chinese media describing the property sector, which represents 16% of GDP and a quarter of all fixed-asset investment, as “too big to fail”.