The UK’s consumer price index rose at an annual rate of 3.6%. Early expectations stood on an annual rate of 3.6% after last month’s 4.2% pace.
GBP/USD weakened earlier after Britain got a credit rating warning from Moody’s, and as the joy regarding the Greek deal faded out. Yet just before the publication, it managed to recover.
RPI dropped to a pace of 3.9%, lower than 4.1% that was expected. Core CPI saw predictions of +2.7% and actually came out at 2.6%.
Pound/dollar now slides to 1.5725. The headline figure was in line with expectations, while the others were weaker.
A VAT increase was seen in January 2011, and this sent prices higher. Therefore, the annual figure this time omitted that rise.
The Monetary Policy Committee decided to expand the Asset Purchase Facility to 325 billion pounds last week, as inflation is dropping and unemployment is on the rise.
Tomorrow we will get fresh unemployment figures. For more on the pound, see the GBP/USD forecast.
