LONDON, March 22 (Reuters) - Sterling jumped on
Wednesday after data showed UK price pressures picked up a lot
more than expected in February, including inflation that
excludes food and energy, raising the chances of another rate
rise this week from the Bank of England.
British consumer price inflation unexpectedly rose to 10.4%
in February from January's 10.1%, figures from the Office for
National Statistics showed on Wednesday.
Economists polled by Reuters had forecast that the annual
CPI rate would drop to 9.9% in January.
The pound rose by as much as 0.4% against the dollar to
$1.2270, from a 0.1% gain prior to the data. The euro fell 0.4% against the pound to 87.73 pence, from
88.00 pence earlier.
Money markets show a 61.6% chance that the BoE will raise
rates by a quarter point when it meets on Thursday, up from
around 57% on Tuesday.
(Reporting by Amanda Cooper; Editing by Joice Alves)
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