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HISTORICAL DETAILS
% Change
1 Wk 0.72%
1 Month 2.12%
3 Months -0.56%
6 Months 2.37%
1 Year 5.00%
52 WEEK
High 1.6747
Low 1.5297
BLOOMBERG MEDIAN FORECASTS
Q2 2011 1.63
Q3 2011 1.61
Q4 2011 1.63
Q1 2012 1.61
DAILY DETAIL
While other currencies rose against the US dollar, sterling fell back, hit by the news that British manufacturing had contracted for the first time in more than two years. The Markit/CIPS PMI for manufacturing stood at 49.1 in July, down from 50 a month earlier, with the new orders index dropping to 47.58, the quickest decline since the dark days of May 2009. The survey reinforces last week’s similar reading from the CBI, and is particularly worrying since manufacturing was the one part of the UK economy to be showing solid growth. Whether this decline is mirrored in the services and construction PMI remains to be seen, although today has seen news that HSBC will be cutting jobs in its UK high street operations, which hardly bodes well for the services PMI. As a result, suggestions of a UK ‘QE2’ are on the rise again, but the Bank of England has far less space to act alone this time round, so it seems that policymakers can only keep interest rates as low as possible. The policy meeting this week at the Bank of England is expected to do just that. Christopher Beauchamp, London
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