FX Focus: Pound tumbles against dollar and euro after poor manufacturing data

The pound slid on Wednesday (7 September) after the latest UK manufacturing and industrial production figures provided a mixed bag.

Having touched one-month highs of near to €1.20 and $1.3450 on Tuesday afternoon, sterling was 0.40% down against the euro, trading at €1.1886, and was 0.51% lower against the dollar, exchanging hands at $1.3368.

Data released earlier by the Office for National Statistics, showed manufacturing production slid 0.9% in July compared to the month before, weighed by a decline in pharmaceutical output. Economists had expected a fall of 0.3% in July, while the decline recorded in the previous month was revised up from 0.3% to 0.2%.

However, industrial production – a broader gauge of the industry – rose 0.1% in July, the same rate of growth recorded in the previous month, against analysts' expectations for a 0.2% decline.

Meanwhile, speaking in front of a Treasury Committee, the Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said he was absolutely "serene" about the risk the Bank outlined in the lead-up to the European Union referendum in June.

"I'm absolutely serene about the comments made both by the monetary policy committee and the financial policy committee," he said.

"In terms of the broad swath of data and how the economy has responded... we feel confident in the orientation and judgment of the committee."

Elsewhere, the euro was 0.11% lower against the dollar, exchanging hands at $1.1243 ahead of Thursday's highly-anticipated European Central Bank (ECB) policy meeting.

"The main point of contention seemingly whether or not the ECB will formally extend its quantitative easing measures beyond March 2017," said Chris Saint, senior analyst, at Hargreaves Lansdown currency service.

"Revised economic forecasts are also likely to paint a slightly weaker picture for the region's inflation and growth prospects."

Meanwhile, the dollar suffered losses of its own, sliding 0.57% against the yen to ¥101.44, as investors continue to grow sceptical the Bank of Japan may implement drastic easing measures at its policy meeting later this month.

The yen has gained over the last couple of days following reports that the Federal Reserve might postpone a new interest-rate hike until next year. However, John Williams, the president of the San Francisco Fed, said overnight that it was too soon to rule out a rate hike this month.

Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at Think Markets UK, said Williams' speech fitted in a pattern that has seen Fed officials try to mitigate the impact of weak economic data on the dollar.

"It is pretty much a trend that after a weak or fragile data, we do get somewhat hawkish comments from various different Fed members, and they try to fade the effects of the data on the dollar," he explained.