This morning a report issued by Halifax building society showed that UK house prices increased for a second consecutive month, but the result wasn’t strong enough to prevent Sterling slipping against the US Dollar.
The Pound Sterling Exchange Rate was in the region of 1.1782 against the Euro as of 10:35 am
In February the value of UK homes rose by 0.5 per cent. This increase has now been followed by a 0.2 per cent increase in March. The result was in line with economist expectations, and hints at the potential for modest improvement in the property market in the months ahead.
One Halifax economist issued the following statement: ‘Weak economic growth and continuing below-trend economic growth are likely to remain significant constraints on housing demand during the remainder of this year. We expect to see a modest increase in UK house prices during 2013.’
Although this result was relatively positive given the mixed housing data the UK has seen over the last several months, the Pound still fell slightly against the US Dollar as investors await this afternoon’s much more influential US non-farm payrolls and unemployment rate figures.
As currency analyst Eimear Daly notes: ‘People are waiting for the US Data. We’re in that no man’s land before payrolls so we might see some fairly flat trading. We will definitely see some volatility in Pound/Dollar after the report.’
The Pound was little changed against the Euro as trade began this morning, but could post a modest gain on the common currency in the hours ahead following a disappointing retail sales report for the Eurozone. Although retail sales in the currency-bloc declined by slightly less-than-forecast, the 0.3 per cent drop followed a negatively revised gain of 0.9 per cent. Year-on-year sales were down 1.4 per cent, also better than economists feared.
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