Sterling recovers ground, hits one-week high vs. dollar

* Graphic: World FX rates in 2020 tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh

* Graphic: Trade-weighted sterling since Brexit vote tmsnrt.rs/2hwV9Hv

LONDON, April 14 (Reuters) – Sterling hit a one-week high against the dollar on Wednesday, recovering some ground after a brief dip the previous day following news the Bank of England’s chief economist resigned.

The pound dipped on Tuesday afternoon, hitting a six-week low against the euro and extending losses against the dollar after the announcement of Andrew Haldane’s resignation.

Haldane was widely seen as one of the more hawkish figures at the central bank, and had been the most upbeat member of the BoE’s Monetary Policy Committee on prospects for a sharp economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. In February, he likened inflation to a tiger that could easily be roused.

By 0802 GMT, the pound was 0.2% higher on the day at $1.3786, having hit a one-week high of $1.38 against the dollar.

It was 0.2% higher to the euro at 86.72 pence, off a six-week low of 87.11 pence hit after the Haldane announcement.

“Although a big hawk, his departure shouldn’t alter the pound’s prospects for the coming months as no imminent BoE tightening was on the table (like for the Fed, it is a story for 2023),” said Petr Krpata, chief EMEA FX and IR strategist at ING.

“The fact that the market pricing of the BoE policy path was largely unchanged yesterday provides a case in point. Plenty of bad news now seems to be priced into GBP (EUR/GBP trades 1.3% overvalued based on our short-term valuation model) and with the UK vaccination programme powering ahead, GBP should recover in coming weeks.”

Sterling has been among the best-performing G10 currencies this year, enjoying its best quarter since 2015 against the euro. The pace of Britain’s vaccination drive has led analysts to bet on a quicker economic rebound from the country’s worst contraction in 300 years.

That trend reversed last week, with sterling suffering a net 2.1% weekly loss against the euro – a move which market participants said was amplified by a squeeze of euro-pound short positions.

Speculators’ net long position on the pound versus the dollar shrank in the week to April 6, weekly futures data from CFTC showed. The market has been net bullish on the pound since early December 2020, but the latest data put levels of bullishness at their lowest since February.

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