The British pound against the US dollar has reached its peak since 2 February. The current quote is 1.2326. Currently, the pound relies on the weakening USD. Everything else, including price statistics or the upcoming meeting of the Bank of England, has faded into the background. However, there is much to look at. Yesterday Britain published a bunch of price statistics. Inflation in February grew to the indecent 10.4% y/y from 10.1% in January. Meanwhile, the CPI had been expected to drop to 9.9%. Base inflation sky-rocketed to 6.2% y/y from 5.8% previously.
The signals are more than clear: the current speed of the growth of crediting prices is not enough to bring down consumer activity and thus get the growth of prices under control. The retail price index in February increased to 13.8% y/y from 13.4% earlier.
A meeting of the Bank of England is scheduled for today, but it is not certain that the fact of growing inflation will lead to a bigger increase in the interest rate. Basic expectations suggest growth of the interest rate by 25 base points to 4.25% per annum. It will be interesting to look at the future steps of the regulator. Now it has rather conservative views, but will anything change in the future? This is a big question.
