British Pound Declines before GDP Report

Great Britain poundThe British pound fell today against the U.S. dollar and the yen, following the three days of growth, as the traders expect the GDP report to confirm a decline of the economy today.

The traders expected that the today’s Q3 GDP report will confirm the 0.5 percent decline seen in the advance report a month ago. The report will be released today at 9:30 GMT. Although it won’t mean a recession in U.K. yet, the continuing decline in the fourth quarter will turn the year-to-year GDP change to negative.

The elevated optimism during the first two days of this week and last Friday brought the 4.9 percent growth to the pound versus the greenback. From this point of view, the today’s slight decline is just a temporal correction.

GBP/USD fell from 1.5455 to 1.5354 as of 8:36 GMT today, while GBP/JPY declined from 147.32 to 145.74.