GBP steps back. Overview for 13.12.2022

On Tuesday, the British pound against the US dollar continues to decline. The current quote is 1.2260.

Today’s statistics from Great Britain came out ambiguous.

The unemployment rate in October grew to 3.7% from 3.6%. The change had been anticipated due to seasonal and other processes in the employment sector. The number of unemployment claims in November increased by 30.5 thousand, becoming an unpleasant surprise. The index had been expected to grow by just 3.5 thousand after a previous decrease by 6.4 thousand.

Average wage in the country over August-October grew by 6.1% as expected.

The British labor market is practically stuck. On the one hand, companies continue work and need employees; on the other hand, they cannot afford to pay them more due to growing inflation and expenses. The pound would have dropped with such disappointing statistics but it is supported by weakness of the USD.

This is not all the statistics scheduled for today. At noon, minutes of the previous meeting of the Bank of England will be published, and the market will try to find hints on the previous steps of the regulator. The new meeting will happen on Thursday.