UK GDP contracts 0.5% in 3rd Quarter. Pound lower this morning in Forex Trading. | CountingPips Forex Blog

November 26, 2008 - Forex Economic News

UK GDP contracts 0.5% in 3rd Quarter. Pound lower this morning in Forex Trading.

The U.K. Gross Domestic Product fell by 0.5 percent in the third quarter according to a report released by the Office of National Statistics today. The third quarter GDP registered a decline of 0.5 percent following no change or 0.0 percent growth in the second quarter. Today's GDP report is the preliminary estimate and confirms the GDP data from the first estimate released on October 24th.

Pound falling in Forex Trading On an annual basis, the U.K. GDP advanced by 0.3 percent over last year's third quarter following a 1.5 percent annual growth rate in the second quarter.

Contributing to the contraction in GDP was total production output which declined in the third quarter by 1.1 percent with manufacturing output falling by 1.3 percent. These figures were revised upward from decreases of output by 1.0 percent and manufacturing by 1.0 percent in the previous release. Construction and manufacturing output fell by 0.5 percent and 0.9 percent in the second quarter, respectively. Today's report also showed that household spending declined by 0.2 percent in the third quarter.

British Pound declines in trading this morning.

The British pound has been trading lower overnight and into this morning after gaining for the last couple of days in the currency markets. The pound has been trading below the 1.5270 level verses the US dollar early today(7:42am ET) after reaching above the 1.5500 level Tuesday in forex trading. The pound is also falling against the Japanese yen today after gaining for two days. The GBP/JPY is trading at 145.68 after opening at 146.33 this morning at 00:00 GMT. The euro is gaining also early today against the pound as the EUR/GBP is trading at 0.8458 after opening at 0.8444. The euro fell by approximately 50 pips to the pound in yesterday's trading.

GBP/USD Chart - The British Pound falling vs. the US dollar after gains in two straight days in forex trading (1 Hour Chart).

Today's Forex Chart

tags: UK GDP, economy, gross domestic product

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