Latest Bank of England Agents Report out a short while ago 20 Sept
- Households had responded to squeezed incomes by trading down or focusing on essential purchases. As a result, demand growth had slowed across a number of consumer-facing sectors, and modest nominal consumer spending growth primarily
reflected price inflation. - Investment intentions indicated weaker growth within services, but were more positive for goods exporters.
- Growth in labour costs per employee had been subdued, with settlements clustered around 2% to 3%. Recruitment difficulties remained elevated, with conditions becoming very tight for some skills.
- The impact of past falls in sterling on consumer goods price inflation appeared to have reached its peak. Consumer services price inflation was steady overall.
The report is a summary of monthly reports compiled by the Bank of England's Agents between late May 2017 and late August 2017. It generally makes comparisons with activity and prices a year earlier.
Seems to fly in the face of the latest retail sales data but GBP is perhaps listening.
GBPUSD down to 1.3565 from 1.3608 EURGBP up to 0.8849 from 0.8826
Full report here
