| Time | Country | Event | Period | Previous value | Forecast | Actual |
|---|
| 06:30 | Switzerland | Producer & Import Prices, m/m | May | 0.1% | -0.4% | -0.5% |
| 06:30 | Switzerland | Producer & Import Prices, y/y | May | -0.5% | -0.6% | -0.7% |
GBP traded little changed against most of the other major currencies in the European session on Monday as investors continued to monitor the Israel-Iran conflict and prepared for the Bank of England’s June policy meeting later this week.
The pound rose versus JPY and USD, fell versus AUD, and changed little versus CAD, CHF, EUR and SEK.
The ongoing conflict between Iran and Israel remains in investors’ focus. The sides attacked each other’s energy facilities over the weekend, extending their hostilities into a globally significant sector. The Israel-Iran confrontation is expected to be discussed at a three-day summit of the Group of Seven (G7) in Canada, set to end tomorrow.
The BoE will announce the outcomes of its June meeting on Thursday. Markets and economists widely expect that the British central bank will decide to keep its benchmark rate at 4.25% at the meeting. Attention will be paid to the BoE’s growth and inflation outlook as well as its policy guidance.
Last week’s releases of the UK GDP data and jobs market statistics, which showed a deeper-than-anticipated shrinkage in the UK’s economy in April, a steeper-than-feared tumble in employment in May and sharper-than-forecast deceleration in wage growth in the three months to April, cemented the case for another quarter-point rate reduction by the BoE at its August 7 meeting and raised the odds of the second move by the end of the year.
In its previous policy statements, the BoE repeated that “a gradual and careful approach to the further withdrawal of monetary policy restraint remains appropriate” and pledged to “decide the appropriate degree of monetary policy restrictiveness at each meeting.”