The statistics along with the increased demand of the market for the USD make the GBP/USD pair “lose weight”.
On Wednesday afternoon, the British Pound is falling significantly against the USD. The current quote for the instrument is 1.2309.
The statistics published today showed that the Markit/CIPS Manufacturing PMI in the United Kingdom in February decreased up to 54.6 points after being 55.9 points in January and against expectation of 55.7 points.
This report is very important for understanding what is going on in the British economy, because the indicator assesses the overall business climate in the manufacturing industry, which constitutes rather significant part of the country’s GDP. The high value of the indicator provides support for the GBP. Otherwise, it’s a negative signal.
In this case, responds are more emotional than rational, because the indicator remains above 50 points, the number which separates the decline from the growth. The report shows that the rate of the output growth is slowly increasing and still above weighted average values. Probably, the increase in the number of new orders may restore the growing momentum as it was before.
The Mortgage Approvals in January was 70K against expectations of 69K. The Net Lending to Individuals in the same month was £4.8B and matched the December reading.
RoboForex Analytical Department