Speculation of further quantitative easing hampers sterling's progress

Published: 22 March, 2012

Sterling had a poor start to the day as Bank of England's minutes revealed two of its members voted for a further injection of £25 billion into the economy.

Currency rates - March 22

EURO/GBP - 1.2001

US$/GBP - 1.5884

CHF/GBP - 1.4465

CAN$/GBP - 1.5768

AUS$/GBP - 1.5274

ZAR/GBP - 12.175

JPY/GBP - 132.30

HKD/GBP - 12.3375

NZD/GBP - 1.9632

SEK/GBP - 10.665

AED/GBP - 5.8296

US$/EURO - 1.3240

INR/GBP - 80.86

It has caused speculation that further quantitative easing could be on the way. The negative sentiment toward sterling was magnified due to extremely poor UK public borrowing figures. Borrowing rose by a larger than expected £15.2bn in February, nearly double the markets estimates. The annual budget release did little to effect sterling's strength as the chancellor's announcements were largely pre-meditated by the market. Retail sales data is the main release from the UK today with the figures expected to show a 0.5% contraction from last month.

The euro had a volatile day as the markets looked towards the releases in the UK and the US for influence. Risk aversion drove the euro weaker in the afternoon against the majority of currencies. The Precedent of the European Central Bank is speaking today to provide some insight on the state of the Eurozone economy.

The US dollar had a strong day yesterday fuelled by a risk adverse market following comments from the Chairman of the Federal Bank stating it was not considering buying debt of "troubled" nations. On the data front, existing home sales figures rose less than expected dampening the positive rhetoric coming from the US of late. More unemployment data is released today which will show the change in the number of people claiming unemployment insurance; any variation from the expected value could cause volatility in the US dollar.

Elsewhere, the New Zealand dollar strengthened in the early hours as figures released showed its current account deficit had narrowed. New Zealand's GDP and Chinese Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) data was released late last night and Canada's core retail sales data is released later on today.

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