The British pound slipped against the dollar today, as investors looked cautiously ahead towards a Bank of England policy meeting next week which could see interest rates rise for the first time in over a decade.
The market is priced for a hike after BoE rate-setters next meet on Nov. 2, but continued uncertainty over the health of the British economy has raised doubts that the rise is necessarily a shoo-in.
Two U.K. credit rating reviews due to be released later by ratings agencies Fitch and Standard & Poor’s will give further clues about the British economy and insights into whether the BoE will raise rates.
The euro slipped for a second day today, on track for its biggest weekly loss of the year on the back of falling bond yields after the European Central Bank extended its bond buying well into next year.
Investors played the diverging monetary policy outlook view between the U.S. and Europe where the former is expected to raise interest rates again before the end of the year while the latter is not expected to raise interest rates in the coming years.