020 7898 0500Sterling slipped across the board on Friday as UK manufacturing growth once again failed to reach the forecast level. With the manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) reading 51.0 versus the expected 51.4, sterling fell to a fresh 15-month low against the euro and saw its US dollar gains made earlier in the week dissipate.
Plenty of data is set for release from the UK this week which has the potential to undermine sterling if expectations are not met. The PMI for the construction industry is released this morning and will show the level of growth throughout the industry in March with a small reduction from the previous months reading expected. Investors however, will be awaiting the release of the March PMI from the services industry on Tuesday as this represents a much larger contributor to the UK economy and the expectation is for an improvement over Februarys reading. Aside from this, the next major data will be released on Friday, where manufacturing production in the UK is forecast to have contracted by 0.1% throughout March. Should we see any unexpected increase in this figure, sterling could find a welcome boost.
If you are looking to buy or sell sterling, we suggest contacting your trader now for live rates, news and currency-purchasing strategies.
