The second release of British GDP for Q4 2011 confirmed the contraction of 0.2%, as expected. A final version is still pending. The year-over-year figure was slightly revised to the downside, from 0.8% to 0.7%.
On the other hand, business investment plunged by 5.6% in Q4, according to the first release. A much milder slide of 0.3% was predicted.
Nevertheless, GBP/USD is moving up towards 1.58, enjoying the optimism in Europe. The Greek bond swap deal is gaining traction after the parliament approved the Collective Action Clauses. There are still quite a lot of hurdles awaiting the pair.
The pair climbed from around 1.5730 earlier in the day. 1.58 seems to limit the rise. Earlier in the week, it bottomed out around 1.5650, similar. to levels seen in the previous week. This is a double bottom.
The UK’s Index of Services remained unchanged. A rise of 0.2% was predicted.
Generally speaking, Britain is better off than Europe, but doesn’t enjoy the improvement seen in the US. More QE (or pound printing) is now expected after the recent meeting minutes.
The revelation that two members wanted a larger expansion certainly hurt the pound, but as we see now, it managed to recover.
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