GBP suffers fall in high street spending

Story link: GBP suffers fall in high street spending

The Swiss frank rose to $1.1740 in relation to the U.S. dollar on Thursday before settling to trade at $1.1775.

The dollar changed little from its overnight close. It remained the same against the euro at $1.3096, and was up 0.1 percent compared to the yen at 107.16 after a down day on Wednesday on the release of strong U.S. inflation figures.

Sterling fell 0.4 percent to $1.9120 compared to the dollar from its overnight close. It also fell 0.4 percent in relation to the euro, to 0.6845.

The decline in pound sterling came after a march report on UK retail sales that had sales down 0.1 percent instead of the expected rise of 0.4 percent.

The release Wednesday of the minutes of the Bank of England’s April meeting of their Monetary Policy Committee also had an effect on the sterling. The minutes showed that the committee vote split seven to two in favor of keeping interest rates where they are, producing speculation that they would not be raised in May either.