Decreased consumer confidence in the United States and a significant slowdown in industrial production and retail sales growth in China. These are the main reasons for the weakening of the British pound against the US dollar and the Japanese yen.
The British pound reacted to worse-than-expected data from the United States and China by weakening. It lost only slightly against the US dollar, namely 0.1 percent. However, it was already 0.6 percent against the Japanese yen, while it maintained its value against the euro.
The weakening of the British currency is immediately due to a deterioration in consumer sentiment in the United States and a slowdown in the growth of Chinese industrial production and retail sales. In addition, developments in China fell short of market expectations. Retail sales rose 8.5 percent year on year in July, while the market consensus was three percentage points higher. Industrial production rose by only 6.4 percent over the same period, while the market expected growth of less than eight percent.
Data on the development of the British labor market, inflation and retail sales will be important for the further development of the pound. All data will be published later this week. At the same time, there is speculation about a gradual tightening of the Bank of England’s monetary policy, which would push for the pound to strengthen against world currencies.
