Sterling dips against dollar

Sterling's currency exchange value dipped against the dollar this morning (Wednesday 17th) following the unexpected rise in unemployment reported by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

However, analysts suspect that the Bank of England's decision to halt quantitative easing has prevented the currency from falling further as some faith in the UK's economic recovery remains.

The number of claimants of the Jobseeker's Allowance rose by 23,500 to 1.64 million in January.

This represented the largest increase in the figure since July 2009, despite the fact that analysts expected the number to fall this year by around 10,000.

Michael Hewson, currency analyst at CMC Markets, told Reuters: "It [sterling] dipped slightly as the market reacted to the disappointing claimant count. That dip has been slightly offset by the unanimous decision to pause QE from the MPC."

One pound sterling bought 1.5577 dollars at 11:00GMT today, a large drop from this time last month when the currency was trading at around 1.62 dollars.

Posted by Chris Barber

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