The Bank of England’s monetary policy meeting held yesterday saw officials keeping interest rates steady at 0.50% as widely expected. However, this came amid three dissenting votes including that of the BoE’s chief economist, Andrew Haldane.
The central bank also signaled that it would begin to unwind its bond purchases once interest rates hit 1.5% and laid the groundwork for a potential rate hike at the August BoE meeting. The British pound initially fell ahead of the BoE meeting but managed to post a strong rebound thereafter.
Economic data for the day will see the European trading session coming up with the flash manufacturing and services PMI figures for the month of June. Business activity is expected to remain more or less at the same levels from May.
The OPEC meetings conclude today with possibly a statement. Investors will be looking to see whether the oil producing nations have managed to reach an agreement on oil production levels.
Data from Canada will see the release of inflation and retail sales figures. Economists forecast that inflation increased 0.4% on the month, accelerating from 0.3% the month before. Core retail sales are forecast to rebound, rising 0.5% on the month, following a decline of 0.2% previously.
