Despite Singapore’s balance of trade eclipsing the market consensus, the Pound has made gradual gains against the Singapore Dollar after British data re-fuelled speculation of a near-future benchmark rate hike from the Bank of England.
The Pound Sterling to Singapore Dollar exchange rate is currently trending in the region of 2.0664.
Having enjoyed a significant boost on Monday from impressive data publications, the Singapore Dollar has gradually declined, like many emerging market currencies, as the US Dollar has enjoyed a bullish surge. Monday’s domestic data showed Singapore’s unemployment rate to have equalled the previous figure of 2.0% and retail sales to have increased massively from 0.4% to 5.5%.
The Pound has struggled against the heavy weight of the Scottish bid for independence. With confusion stemming from various polls giving different results and amid the general fear associated with the ramifications of a divided Britain, Sterling has softened by a great deal against most of the majors.
Tuesday saw further Sterling declination after UK inflation data proved to be disappointing. The yearly consumer price index fell from 1.6% to 1.5% which is the wrong direction when you consider that the Bank of England’s target inflation is at 2.0%.
The Pound Sterling to Singapore Dollar exchange rate has hit a low today of 2.0516.
Wednesday’s British economic data has been generally positive, which has resulted in Sterling firming up a little versus the majority of its competitors. Average weekly earnings eclipsed the market consensus of a 0.6% growth (from -0.1% to 0.5%) with the actual data having grown by 0.7% to 0.6%. This, however, is still the slowest pace of wage growth since comparable records began. The lack of correlation between wages and inflation could spell trouble for the British economy, and may put a further obstacle ahead of a near-term benchmark rate hike. British employment change fell well below the forecast figure of 120,000 to just 74,000, but the unemployment rate showed a positive declination to 6.2% from 6.4%.
The Bank of England also published the minutes from their most recent monetary policy meeting on Wednesday. The minutes indicated that two of the policy makers disagreed with Governor Mark Carney’s stance on monetary policy, with particular reference to the unchanged bank rate. The news is unlikely to spark much renewed speculation of a rate hike given the issues with inflation described above.
In spite of the fact that Wednesday’s economic data pertaining to Singapore was positive, SGD has still cooled against the Pound. The Singapore Balance of Trade was forecast to rise a little from the previous score of 4090.0 million, but the actual data was a huge increase to 6797 million.
So far the Singapore Dollar has managed to avoid the brutal sell-off of neighbouring emerging-market currencies as Ansuya Harjani, writing for CNBC, explains; ‘According to foreign exchange strategists, the Singapore dollar should remain well isolated from the heavy selling plaguing countries with external deficits such as Indonesia and India’.
The Pound Sterling to Singapore Dollar exchange rate has reached a high today of 2.0668.
UPDATE
The Pound Sterling to Singapore Dollar exchange rate is currently trending in the region of 2.0670.
As the Scottish citizens make their final vote on independence the Pound has been subject to strange movement against many foreign currencies. Whilst most believe that the vote is likely to be won by the Unionists, the closeness of the votes and the differentiating polling results have boosted anxieties.
With nothing in terms of economic data the Singapore Dollar has experienced relatively little movement against the Pound, and is likely to remain so until there is more clarity surrounding the Scottish referendum.
