GBPUSD Movement
For the 24 hours to 23:00 GMT, the GBP rose 1.35% against the USD and closed at 1.4948, after the UK Chancellor, George Osborne upgraded the nation’s growth forecasts to 2.5% from 2.4% in 2015 and to 2.3% from 2.2% in 2016. He further projected the nation’s inflation to fall to 0.2% going forward and indicated that Greece’s exit from the Euro bloc might pose a serious challenge to Britain’s economy.
In other economic news, Britain’s ILO unemployment rate remained steady at 5.70% in the November-January period, while market expectations were for it to ease to a level of 5.60%. Meanwhile, claimant count rate dropped to 2.40%, in line with market expectations. It had registered a level of 2.50% in the previous month.
Separately, the minutes of the BoE from its recent monetary policy meeting showed no surprise, as all nine MPC voting members voted unanimously to keep interest rates on hold at record low level of 0.5% and its quantitative-easing program unchanged at the same amount of £375 billion.
In the Asian session, at GMT0400, the pair is trading at 1.4898, with the GBP trading 0.34% lower from yesterday’s close.
The pair is expected to find support at 1.4632, and a fall through could take it to the next support level of 1.4366. The pair is expected to find its first resistance at 1.5166, and a rise through could take it to the next resistance level of 1.5434.
Amid no economic releases in the UK today, investor sentiment would be governed by global macroeconomic news.
The currency pair is trading above its 20 Hr and 50 Hr moving averages.
