Sterling Suffers from Falling House Prices in United Kingdom

The Great Britain pound was hurt by today’s economic data that showed a decline of house prices in the United Kingdom this month. Yet not all the news was negative for the currency.

The Rightmove House Price Index fell 0.8 percent in August from July, though the indicator was still up 6.4 percent from a year ago. The report hinted that the UK economy is experiencing problems, which may force the central bank to postpone monetary tightening — not a favorable outcome for the sterling. Yet as good news for the currency, Kristin Forbes, a member of the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee, said that policy makers should not wait too long before starting raising interest rates, otherwise rate hikes might be not as gradual as they should be.

GBP/USD slid from 1.5650 to 1.5592 as of 16:47 GMT today. GBP/JPY joined other JPY-crosses in decline, dropping from 194.22 to 193.86 after rising to 195.15 earlier.

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