BLBG:Pound Approaches Two-Week Low Against Dollar Before Construction Report
The pound traded within one cent of an almost two-week low versus the dollar before a report that is forecast to show the U.K. construction industry grew at a slower pace last month.
The British currency strengthened against the euro for a second day. A gauge of building activity fell to 53.1 from 53.6 in June, Markit Economics Ltd. and the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply will say today, according to the median forecast of 10 analysts in Bloomberg News survey.
The pound was little changed at $1.6288 as of 8:05 a.m. in London. Sterling was 0.3 percent stronger at 87.22 pence per euro and weakened 0.5 percent to 1.2705 Swiss francs.
Bank of England policy makers meet to set interest rates on Aug. 4, and will keep its benchmark unchanged at 0.5 percent, according to all 55 economists in a Bloomberg survey.
The Confederation of British Industry cut its growth forecast for the U.K. economy yesterday after gross domestic product barely grew in the second quarter. The U.K. will grow 1.3 percent this year, compared with an estimate of 1.7 percent in May, the country’s biggest employers’ group said in a quarterly forecast. The CBI’s growth prediction for 2012 is unchanged at 2.2 percent.
Sterling has fallen 9 percent in the last 12 months, making it the second-worst performer among 10 developed-market currencies after the U.S. dollar, according to Bloomberg Correlation-Weighted Currency Indexes.
To contact the reporter on this story: Anchalee Worrachate in London at aworrachate@bloomberg.net;
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Daniel Tilles at dtilles@bloomberg.net
