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UK Wage growth slightly better

• Posted by currencies in Bank of England, Brexit, Currency, Dollar, Economy, EUR, GBP, Sterling, UK, Uncategorised
• December 13, 2017
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Pay growth for British workers quickened slightly in the three months to October but there was another drop in employment, official figures showed, suggesting employers are turning more cautious as Brexit nears.

Britain’s economy slowed sharply this year as the 2016 Brexit vote weighed on households and companies, but job creation has largely remained strong until recently.

The number of people in work fell by 56,000 during the three months to October, the most since mid-2015, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said this morning. It was the second consecutive fall.
The data also showed the unemployment rate held unexpectedly at its four-decade low of 4.3 percent.

The Bank of England increased interest rates for the first time since 2007 last month as most of its policymakers thought the steep fall in unemployment will soon start to push up wages.
The BoE’s next rate decision announcement is due on Thursday.

Theresa May’s control of the Brexit process will undergo its stiffest parliamentary test yet today, when she faces a showdown with rebels in her own party over the laws that will take Britain out of the European Union.

May’s government is trying to pass a bill through parliament that will repeal the 1972 legislation binding Britain to the EU and copy existing EU law into domestic law to ensure legal continuity after ‘Exit Day’ on March 29, 2019.

A two-week rally in the dollar stalled today after a Democrat won a bitter fight for a U.S. Senate seat in deeply conservative Alabama, injecting fresh uncertainty about the outlook for the greenback in the coming months.

Even as the U.S. Federal Reserve prepares to raise interest rates for the third time this year at the end of a two-day policy meeting in the day, traders are a bit more sceptical that policymakers will flag more rate hikes next year than the current two increases currently priced into markets.