The British Claimant Count Change (jobless claims) dropped by 5.9K in July. Expectations stood on a rise of 6K, so this is certainly good news. Also June’s number was positively revised from a rise of 6.1K to a rise of only 1K. The unemployment rate for June stands on 8.0%. Expectations stood on no change from May’s 8.1%.
Also in the UK, meeting minutes from the latest rate decision showed a unanimous vote to keep both the interest rate and the QE program unchanged.
The good news from the unemployment front, together with the surprising rise in inflation reported yesterday will likely cause the Bank of England to continue with its current policy and refrain from more easing.
GBP/USD reacts positively to this data and rises towards 1.57. The pair was trading around 1.5670 before the publications. It already reached 1.57 before retreating.
For more, see the GBPUSD prediction
