The Pound made great gains against the Euro, Dollar and Rand in the afternoon’s trading session following the Monetary Policy Committee’s split decision on raising interest rates.
The vote came in at 5-3 just after noon today to keep rates on hold at the record low 0.25%. Kristin Forbes surprisingly found support from two others to raise rates to 0.5%.
Markets were surprised and rightly so since this was the first time since 2011 that there has been 3 dissenters on the committee. Sterling reacted accordingly trading up aggressively against all major currencies, in particular recovering losses against the USD after yesterdays Fed announcement.
This announcement has acted as a smokescreen for the poor retail sales figures which came out in the morning session. Retail sales fell sharply last month pouring more uncertainty on the UK economy as we head into the Brexit negotiations.
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