The Pound recovered in yesterday’s foreign exchange markets against both the Euro and US Dollar.
In the UK, the latest GfK UK consumer confidence survey showed the most positive consumer sentiment in nine years this month further raising hopes of solid economic growth for the UK in the current second quarter of this year.
This is now the first time GfK index is in positive territory since March 2005.
Nick Moon, Managing Director of Social Research at GfK, said the figure was "psychologically important" and added "The last time the index was consistently positive was back in 2002 and this must be the next 'target' from the government's point of view as we get close to the election period."
Separately, the Bank of England (BoE) in their Financial Stability Report announced a series of measures to try and cool the UK housing market claiming it represents the biggest risk to the UK economic recovery.
Amongst the recommendations from the Financial Policy Committee (FPC) is a cap on loan-to-income (LTI) ratios (suggesting that lenders do not give out more than 15% of mortgages at or greater than 4.5 times household income). In response, the UK Treasury announced that no new loans at or above an LTI of 4.5 will be available under the government sponsored ‘Help to Buy’ mortgage guarantee scheme.
The FPC also said that "affordability tests" on borrowers should be stricter and said the decisions were made "with the intention of capturing macro-prudential risks associated with excessive household indebtedness".
The US dollar was hit again yesterday in the currency markets by further poor data from the US economy. The Department of Commerce reported that personal incomes and spending increased by just 0.4% and 0.2% respectively month-on-month in May, well short of analysts’ expectations.
Analysts at Barclays Research commenting on the figures pointed out that 'real', that is inflation adjusted personal spending actually fell by 0.1% in May, the second consecutive monthly decline.
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