Sterling hits post-Brexit vote high against dollar ahead of pay data

THE pound capped off a seven-day winning streak by climbing to a post-Brexit vote high against the dollar as attention on currency markets turned to the pay squeeze on UK households finally ending.

Forex analysts pinned the pound’s jump above $1.43 against the dollar for only the second time since the EU referendum on expectations that wage growth would finally nudge past inflation in figures due tomorrow.

After 13 months of negative real wage growth, economists forecast that pay hit 3pc in February, surging past inflation at 2.7pc.

The benchmark rate for sterling at the end of trading in London had jumped 0.6pc against the dollar to $1.4328, while against the euro it had hit an 11-month high.

The pound threatened its post-referendum intraday high of $1.4347 reached in January before easing back. Analysts also said that the dollar’s safe haven appeal was waning as tensions cooled in the Middle East, which also helped sterling strengthen against the greenback.

With the pound’s Brexit jitters allayed by the agreement of a transition deal, ING’s Viraj Patel argued that traders were back to “good old-fashioned data watching” ahead of the Bank of England’s May meeting.