Sept 8 Reuters Sterling edged lower on Tuesday after data showed that growth in British wages was slightly weaker than expected but failed to affect bets on the Bank of England policy path.

Wages grew at their slowest pace since October 2022 while the unemployment rate edged up unexpectedly, according to data which may slightly ease the Bank of England39;s inflation worries.

Money markets fully price a 25 basis points rate cut from the BoE by August and an around 50 chance by June.

Sterling was last down 0.1 at 1.2798 after jumping 1.6 last week versus the greenback as investors bet that the BoE will be slower than the European Central Bank and U.S. Federal Reserve in cutting interest rates.

Last week, the dollar and euro were under selling pressure versus sterling after Fed Chair Jerome Powell sounded more confident about cutting interest rates in coming months, while the ECB39;s governing council had begun to discuss a suitable timeline for monetary policy easing.

Some analysts argued that investors tried to shorten sterling in recent months on the back of deteriorating data and weak external balances. Still, the pound has outperformed this year, supported by its highyielding currency status on top of a broad risk appetite.

Investors will focus on U.S. inflation data later in the session which could affect market expectations for the Fed future decisions.

Since this wage figures is published as a moving average, a big base effect should add pressure in the next…