Better than expected UK employment data gave the pound a further boost in the foreign exchange market yesterday.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported that the UK unemployment rate has now fallen over the three months ended in April to a rate of 6.6%a further fall of 0.2% in a month. Even more encouragingly, the number of people employed rose sharply by 345,000 to 30.54 million over the same period taking the rate of employment for those aged between 16 and 64 to 79.2%, just shy of the previous peak set in early 2005.
Of interest, wage pace growth has slowed to 0.7% in the 12 months to April, well below the 1.2% increase expected by analysts.
In contrast to recent speculation, Samuel Tombs, Senior UK Economist at Capital Economics commented that "So, with few signs that the labour market is a source of inflationary pressure, we still think the MPC can afford to keep interest rates on hold until well into next year."
In the euro zone, European Central Bank (ECB) board member Yves Mersch said yesterday that the monetary authority may buy "simple and transparent" asset-backed securities (ABS) to achieve price stability and added that the ECB is working towards a more ‘holistic’ approach to the regulatory treatment of ABS in Europe.
In a dampener to recent world wide optimism, the World Bank is now forecasting that the global economy will expand by just 2.8% in 2014, well down from its last prediction in January of 3.2%. The main culprits are the projected slower growth for the US, Russia, China, Brazil and India. It however left forecasts for world growth in 2015 unchanged at 3.4%.
Overnight, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand increased its benchmark interest rate by 0.25% to 3%, the third rise this year with a strong hint that there is more to come strengthening the Kiwi dollar across the board.
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