A ¥211.09 session high for sterling against the yen on Monday put the U.K. currency at its strongest in roughly a month before labor and inflation reports that precede the Bank of England’s next decision.
Investing.com’s historical series lists no higher daily high since Sept. 21. The site does not specify when the intraday high occurred. For comparison, the European Central Bank (ECB) set its Oct. 19 reference rates at ¥177.63 per euro and £0.84205 per euro, implying about ¥210.95 per pound. The ECB figure is a daily reference rate, while Investing.com records a session high.
The ECB’s cross-rates show that the yen’s value against the euro was higher at the Oct. 19 fixing than on Oct. 16. Sterling also gained against the euro over those dates, and its rise was larger.
The BoE held Bank Rate at 3.75% on Sept. 17. Three of the nine policymakers voted for a 0.25-percentage-point increase. The Bank of Japan (BoJ) raised its overnight rate target from around 1% to 1.25% at its Sept. 18 meeting and said it would continue increasing rates while adjusting the level of monetary support. The U.K. rate stood 2.5 percentage points above Japan’s target. That gap provides policy context, but it does not by itself explain Monday’s currency move.
In a survey conducted Oct. 12-14, Reuters reported that 54 of 63 economists expected the BoE to raise rates by a quarter point at its Nov. 5 meeting. The result is an economist forecast, not a policy decision.
The U.K. Office for National Statistics (ONS) is scheduled to release labor-market data Oct. 20 at 2 a.m. ET (7 a.m. BST), followed by September inflation figures Oct. 21 at the same time. The BoJ’s next policy meeting is scheduled for Oct. 29-30.
