The pound weakened for a second day against the dollar after the British Chambers of Commerce cut its growth forecast for the U.K. economy. Sterling declined for the first time in five days versus the yen after the London-based business lobby lowered its 2012 growth projection to 0.6 percent from 0.8 percent in December. The group also pushed back its forecast for a Bank of England interest-rate increase to the end of 2013, from the first quarter of that year. U.K. 10-year gilts were little changed. The pound declined 0.2 percent to $1.5792 at 8:24 a.m. London time after dropping 0.8 percent on March 2. Sterling fell 0.1 percent to 83.46 pence per euro, and depreciated 1 percent to 128.24 yen. The 10-year gilt yielded 2.15 percent. The 4 percent security maturing in March 2022 traded at 165.53. Two-year yields were little changed at 0.41 percent. Gilts have handed investors a 0.9 percent loss this year, according to indexes compiled by Bloomberg and the European Federation of Financial Analysts Societies. U.S. Treasuries dropped 0.2 percent and German bunds returned 0.3 percent. Sterling has weakened 1 percent in 2012, according to Bloomberg Correlation-Weighted Indexes, which track 10 developed-nation currencies. The dollar fell 2.8 percent and the euro declined 0.9 percent. -- Editors: Nicholas Reynolds, Mark McCord To contact the reporter on this story: David Goodman in London at dgoodman28@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Daniel Tilles at dtilles@bloomberg.net

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