The Great Britain pound tumbled today, erasing yesterday’s gains versus the US dollar, after the report showed that the unemployment claims jumped and the minutes of the Bank of England monetary policy meeting indicated that most of the policy makers are against increasing the interest rates.
The number of people claiming unemployed benefits increased by 12,400 between March and April to 1.47 million. The predicted change was only 400. The minutes of the BoE monetary policy meeting showed that only three member of the Monetary Policy Committee voted for an increase of the lending rates, while six was against such decision. The minutes said that an increase “could adversely affect consumer confidence, leading to an exaggerated impact on both spending and firmsâ perceptions of their desired productive capacity”.
GBP/USD fell from 1.6250 to 1.6146, while GBP/JPY dropped from 132.26 to 130.97 today as of 12:25 GMT.
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