Manufacturing production in the UK fell by 1.1%, worse than 0.6% that was expected. The wider industrial output figure fell 0.6% as expected.Â
GBP/USD fell to support at 1.60 but didn’t follow through.
GBP/USD already lost the 1.6060 line earlier in the week. Looking at the bigger picture, pound/dollar failed to break above 1.63, and continued deteriorating since then.
The round number of 1.60 was initially challenged as worries about Europe grew: Spain moved a bit away from asking for a bailout: this hurt Spanish bonds, European stock markets and the euro.
In addition, the UK reported the trade balance number, which also disappointed by printing a wider deficit of 9.8 billion pounds, worse than 8.3 billion that was predicted and much wider than last month’s 7.3 billion deficit.
For more on the pound, see the GBP/USD.
In general, British indicators were quite mediocre, and there’s still a lot of talk about a Plan B to the government’s austerity measures.
