EUR/GBP retreats modestly after climbing to fresh multi-week highs above 0.8700

• EUR/GBP jumped to its highest level since late February.
• Resignation of BoE Chief Economist Haldane weighed on GBP.
• ZEW Economic Sentiment Index for EU and Germany missed market expectations.

The EUR/GBP fell to a daily low of 0.8640 during the European trading hours on Tuesday but managed to stage an impressive rebound in the second half of the day. After touching its highest level since February 22 at 0.8713, the pair edged lower and was last seen gaining 0.25% on a daily basis at 0.8686.

Earlier in the day, the monthly sentiment data showed that the ZEW Economic Sentiment Index in April declined to 70.7 and 66.3 in Germany and the EU, respectively. Both of these readings fell short of analysts’ estimate and weighed on the shared currency.

However, the British pound faced strong selling pressure after the Bank of England (BoE) announced the resignation of  Chief Economist Andy Haldane. The BoE also  noted that Haldane will also step down from the Monetary Policy Committee after the June meeting.

Mirroring the negative impact of this headline on the GBP, the GBP/USD pair lost around 40 pips in a matter of minutes and briefly dipped below 1.3700.

On Wednesday, Industrial Production will be featured in the European economic docket. There won’t be any significant macroeconomic data releases from the UK.

Technical levels to watch for