Pound Snaps 4-Day Decline Versus Dollar as House Prices Rise

Pound Snaps 4-Day Decline Versus Dollar as House Prices Rise

The pound snapped four days of declines against the dollar as a report showed U.K. home sellers raised asking prices to the highest since 2008 this month.

Sterling weakened against the euro. Minutes from the Bank of England's May 5 meeting will be released May 18 and will show how the central bank's nine policy makers split as they voted to hold the key rate at 0.5 percent. U.K. consumer prices rose 4.1 percent from a year earlier in April, up from 4 percent a month earlier, according to the median estimate of 32 economists in a Bloomberg survey before the data is released tomorrow.

"The housing market is still in a situation of very limited supply offsetting weak demand, and that's helping house prices," said Lee Hardman, a currency strategist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. in London. "The data this week should continue to paint a picture that the U.K. is experiencing a persistent inflation overshoot and very weak activity, and as a result the Bank of England is in a difficult position."