EUR/GBP challenges weekly highs near 0.89 post-BoE
- EUR/GBP pushes higher to the boundaries of 0.8900.
- UK Retail Sales came in on the soft side in August.
- The BoE left its monetary conditions unchanged today.
The renewed selling bias around the Sterling is lifting EUR/GBP to fresh tops in the vicinity of 0.89 the figure on Thursday.
EUR/GBP bid after UK data, steady BoE
The British Pound stayed apathetic after the Bank of England left the refi rate unchanged at 0.75% as well as the asset purchase facility at £435 billion and the Corporate Bond purchases at £10 billion. Furthermore, today’s decision was unanimous.
The BoE also reiterated that interest rates would need to raise on a gradual fashion in case of a soft Brexit scenario and improvement in the global growth. Additionally, the central bank now sees the UK economy expanding 0.2% this year (from 0.3%) and inflation running below 2.0% in the same period.
In the UK docket, headline Retail Sales contracted at a monthly 0.2% during August and Core sales dropped 0.3% inter-month, both prints coming in short of previous estimates.
Back to the Brexit saga, latest news said Finnish PM A.Rinne urged the UK to present a Brexit proposal by end of this month.
EUR/GBP key levels
The cross is gaining 0.52% at 0.8888 and faces the next hurdle at 0.8946 (100-day SMA) followed by 0.9045 (55-day SMA) and then 0.9148 (monthly high Sep.3). On the downside, a breach of 0.8838 (monthly low Sep.17) would expose 0.8807 (61.8% Fibo of the May-August rally) and finally 0.8667 (78.6% Fibo of the May-August rally).