Sterling is heading lower today, dropping as the latest manufacturing growth data disappoints. The UK economy continues to struggle, and it doesn’t help much that the Bank of England has predicted slowing growth in the economy. Indeed, compared to some of its major counterparts, the slowdown is disappointing, and contributing to losses for the pound.
The latest UK PMI from Markit fell to 55.4 in July, down from a 57.2 in June. The drop wasn’t wholly unexpected, but it still hasn’t done much to help the UK pound against its counterparts. It’s expected for the sterling to struggle against the US dollar, since the greenback is benefiting from a pick up in the economy, but UK pound is also struggling against the euro right now.
There are some concerns revolving around the situation in Ukraine, as well as the expected slowdown predicted by the BOE. This is making it even more difficult to be bullish on sterling. Instead, there are quite a few bears out, worried about the pace of the slower growth, and concerned about how the crisis in Ukraine will impact the British economy.
At 14:07 GMT GBP/USD is down to 1.6831 from the open at1.6885. EUR/GBP is up to 0.7967 from the open at 0.7930. GBP/JPY is down to 172.9985 from the open at 173.5800.
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