The Consumer Prices Index (CPI) rose by 0.3% in the year to February 2016, unchanged from January 2016. Increase by 0.4% was forecasted. This maintains the position seen over the last few months of a rate which is a little above zero.The contributions to change in the CPI rate from the detailed categories were relatively small compared with most months.The largest downward contribution came from the transport sector, from price changes for items such as road passenger transport, second-hand cars and bicycles. Rising food prices, particularly for vegetables, offset this.

The price of goods bought and sold by UK manufacturers, as estimated by the producer price index, continued to fall in the year to February 2016. Factory gate prices (output prices) for goods produced by UK manufacturers fell 1.1% in the year to February 2016, compared with a fall of 1.0% in the year to January 2016. The overall price of materials and fuels bought by UK manufacturers for processing (total input prices) fell 8.1% in the year to February 2016, compared with a fall of 8.0% in the year to January 2016.

 

Sterling is currently being traded few points above 1.43 level. Pair is likely to find support around 1.4250 handle and resistance above 1.4350 level. There will be no major data releases in the rest of the session.