The pound ended Monday marginally lower against the euro and remained largely unchanged against USD.
Wages in the euro area grew by 5.3% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2024 following an upwardly revised 3.2% increase in the previous period. This marked the biggest rise since the final quarter of 2022. This result exceeded expectations and aligns with the European Central Bank’s (ECB’s) view that wage pressures are set to remain high before entering a downward trajectory in 2025.
Christine Lagarde, ECB president, said yesterday that officials are being “attentive” to financial market developments shortly after her chief economist, Philip Lane, shared sanguine statements about the French uproar last week, sharing that he wasn’t worried.
Ireland’s trade surplus rocketed to €8.8 billion in April 2024, considerably more than this time last year (€4.36 bn). This trade surplus was the most since January and was largely fuelled by a 25% in exports, despite imports contracting by 5.5%.
In China, house prices slumped at the fastest rate in almost a decade due to an excess of new properties on the market. The price of new homes in 70 cities (excluding subsidised housing) fell by 0.7% from April, reflecting the steepest drop since October 2014.
Early this morning, we heard the Reserve Bank of Australia kept its cash rate at 4.35%, matching market expectations and remaining unchanged for the fifth consecutive month.
Later today, we will receive the latest statistics from the German ZEW Economic Sentiment Index, which is expected to improve from May’s 47.1 to 49 in June, and US retail sales, which are expected to have grown by 0.2% in May.
Tomorrow, all eyes will be on the UK inflation figure for May, which could still influence the Bank of England’s rate decision on Thursday.
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