For the 24 hours to 23:00 GMT, the GBP rose marginally against the USD and closed at 1.2422, after the UK’s Chancellor, Philip Hammond, in his Autumn Statement, slightly revised up UK’s growth outlook for this year and introduced plans to increased spending on those areas of the economy that can help boost productivity in the nation.
Yesterday, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond, stated that Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) revised up UK’s growth forecast to 2.1% for 2016, from 2.0% estimated earlier, but slashed its growth projection for 2017 to 1.4%, down from the 2.2% previously estimated. Further, the Chancellor stated that the UK government will need to borrow more over the next five years, partly due to UK’s decision to leave the European Union and added that the government will form a new National Productivity Investment Fund valued at £23.0 billion, which will focus on innovation and infrastructure in the nation. Additionally, the government is no longer seeking a budget surplus in 2019-20 and is committed to returning public finances to balance “as soon as practicable”.
In the Asian session, at GMT0400, the pair is trading at 1.2431, with the GBP trading 0.07% higher against the USD from yesterday’s close.
The pair is expected to find support at 1.2369, and a fall through could take it to the next support level of 1.2308. The pair is expected to find its first resistance at 1.2480, and a rise through could take it to the next resistance level of 1.2530.
Going ahead, investors would await the release of UK’s BBA mortgage approvals for October, scheduled to release in a few hours.
The currency pair is showing convergence with its 20 Hr and 50 Hr moving averages.