The pound made an effort to recover some of the losses incurred on Monday on the back of further better than expected UK economic data.
The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) reported yesterday that UK business confidence has reached its highest level since 2007 according to their latest quarterly report.
The BCC now expects UK GDP to grow by 0.6% in the second quarter of 2013, sharply up from its previous forecast when it predicted growth of just 0.9% for the entire year.
The report also shows that export sales have been growing at the fastest pace since the CBI started to publish its survey back in 1989.
BCC's chief economist David Kern said "The UK upturn is slowly strengthening. If recent progress can be sustained, there are realistic hopes that growth forecasts will be revised up further. Developing the export potential of this sector is critical to long-term prosperity.
In addition, the Markit/CIPS purchasing managers’ index for the UK’s construction sector improved from a figure of 50.8 in May to reach 51.00 in June, its highest levels since May 2012.
Of note, activity in the commercial construction and civil engineering sectors seem to have stabilised with new order growth hitting a 13-month high last month.
Meanwhile, residential building activity rose for a fifth month in a row.
David Noble, Chief Executive Officer at the Chartered Institute of Purchasing & Supply, remains cautious stating that “this enthusiasm may also have been bolstered by the Government’s support for new house building. Whether expectations match reality, only time will tell.”
Overnight, the HSBC/Markit reported that activity in China's services sector remained sluggish throughout June as new orders registered their weakest growth since November 2008.
HSBC's Chief Economist for China Hongbin Qu indicated that “the underlying growth momentum is likely to be softening for services sectors, along with the slowdown of manufacturing growth (…) we expect slower growth in service sectors in the coming months”.
In addition, the Chinese authorities released its official non-manufacturing PMI for June, reporting a further drop from 54.3 to 53.9. Government data tends to concentrate on larger, state-owned companies.
The slowdown in China continues to drag the high yielding, commodity based currencies like the Australian, New Zealand and Canadian dollars down on economic growth fears.
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