| Time | Country | Event | Period | Previous value | Forecast | Actual |
|---|
| 07:45 | France | Industrial Production, m/m | November | -0.3% | 0.1% | 0.5% |
GBP traded mixed against its major rivals in the European session on Wednesday as investors waited for the Bank of England (BoE) governor Andrew Bailey’s parliamentary testimony later in the day, which could shed more light on the future of monetary policy in the UK.
The pound firmed versus JPY, USD and CHF but slipped versus CAD, AUD and EUR.
Bailey will appear before the UK’s MPs at 15:15 GMT to report on financial stability in December. Markets will scrutinise his remarks for clues on the prospects for policy easing.
After the BoE’s December meeting, the central bank’s boss stated it was too early to start speculating about cutting interest rates.
Ahead of Bailey’s testimony, markets are predicting the BoE to reduce its interest rates by 125 basis points this year, given deteriorating economic conditions in Britain. The expected scale is only 15 basis points less than those foreseen for the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank.