Forexpros – The euro touched a session low against the pound on Wednesday, after Bank of England minutes showed that policymakers voted unanimously to leave policy unchanged, while stronger-than-forecast U.K. employment data also weighed.
EUR/GBP pulled away from 0.7879, the session high, to hit 0.7857 during European morning trade, dipping 0.03%.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.7827, Monday’s low and resistance at 0.7883, Tuesday’s high.
BoE policymakers voted 9 to zero in favor of leaving U.K. interest rates unchanged at 0.5% at its meeting this month and also agreed to leave the quantitative easing program unchanged at GBP375 billion.
The decision to leave the central bank’s monetary stimulus program unchanged was “finely balanced” for some policymakers, but the monetary policy committee wanted more time to assess the impact of the bank’s new Funding for Lending Scheme.
Meanwhile, official data showed that the number of people claiming unemployment benefits in the U.K. fell unexpectedly in July and the nation’s unemployment rate ticked down.
The Office for National Statistics said that the claimant count fell by a seasonally adjusted 5,900 in July, defying expectations for an increase of 6,000.
The previous month’s figure was revised down to a gain of 1,000 from a previously reported increase of 6,100.
The rate of unemployment unexpectedly ticked down to 8.0% from 8.1% in June, against expectations for no change.
The data came one day after a report showing that consumer price inflation in the U.K. unexpectedly accelerated to 2.6% in July from 2.4% the previous month.
The euro remained supported by hopes that the European Central Bank will soon act to stem the debt crisis in the euro zone.
The pound pulled back from a session low against the greenback following the data, with GBP/USD inching up 0.07% to 1.5687.
Later Wednesday, the U.S. was to release official data on consumer price inflation and industrial production, as well as a report on manufacturing activity in the New York area.
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