GBP Rises After Strong UK PMI

GBP/USD Graph for May 1, 2014

The pound has hit a near five-year high against the dollar after a survey suggested that UK manufacturing grew faster than expected in April.

Sterling hit $1.6921, before falling back to $1.6906, and against the euro it rose 0.1% to 1.2184 euros.

The gains came after the Markit/CIPS Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) ticked up to 57.3 from a revised 55.8 in March.

A figure above 50 indicates expansion, and economists had expected 55.4.

The PMI figure, the highest for five months, maintained the sector’s “robust start to the year”, CIPS said.

“Growth improved across the consumer, intermediate and investment goods sectors, as companies responded to rising new order inflows, new product launches and efforts to clear backlogs of work,” it added.

Rob Dobson, senior economist at Markit, said the survey suggested that manufacturers were creating jobs at a pace of about 10,000 a month at present, with employment in the sector expanding for the 12th month in a row.

via BBC

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Alfonso Esparza

Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse
Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.
Alfonso Esparza