Positive economic data boosts pound

Published: 2 May at 9 AM Tags: Euro, Dollar,

Upbeat economic data coming out of the UK has helped sterling to hover around a five-year high. The pound is currently worth $1.6886 after peaking at $1.6921 on Thursday. Figures for manufacturing for last month indicated a surge in production and house prices also rose during April faster than they have since June 2007.

The dollar is holding steady ahead of a jobs report from the US and appears not to have been hit too hard by the continued tensions between Russia and Ukraine.

However the greenback lost some value after data indicated that during the first quarter the US economy stalled. The dollar index is up today to 79.543 from yesterday’s 79.414.

The dollar is steady against its Japanese rival at 102.36 yen. Since the beginning of February the greenback has been trading between 101 and 104 yen. The euro dropped 0.1 per cent to $1.3862. On Thursday the single currency peaked at $1.3890, the highest the currency has been in three weeks.

Most analysts believe that the dollar will recover from a weak first quarter on the back of positive jobs data for April. It is estimated that during the month around 200,000 people were added to the payroll.