UK Preliminary Services PMI dips to 52.8 in September vs. 53.5 expected
- UK Services PMI ticks down to 52.8 in September, missing estimates.
- Manufacturing PMI in the UK declines to 51.5 in September.
- GBP/USD sticks to losses near 1.3250 after downbeat UK business PMIs.
The seasonally adjusted S&P Global/CIPS UK Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) eased from 52.5 in August to 51.5 in September. The market forecast was for a 52.3 reading.
Meanwhile, the Preliminary UK Services Business Activity Index dipped to 52.8 in September, after registering 53.7 in August while coming in below the market consensus of 53.5.
Commenting on the flash PMI data, Chris Williamson, Chief Business Economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence said: “A slight cooling of output growth across manufacturing and services in September should not be seen as too concerning, as the survey data are still consistent with the economy growing at a rate approaching 0.3% in the third quarter, which is in line with the Bank of England’s forecast.”
FX implications
GBP/USD maintained the offered tone near 1.3250 after the dismal UK PMI data. The pair is trading 0.45% lower on the day, as of writing.
(This story was corrected on September 23 at 11:35 GMT to say in the first bullet point that UK Services PMI missed estimates, not beat them.)
British Pound PRICE Today
The table below shows the percentage change of British Pound (GBP) against listed major currencies today. British Pound was the weakest against the Japanese Yen.
| USD | EUR | GBP | JPY | CAD | AUD | NZD | CHF | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| USD | 0.64% | 0.46% | -0.27% | 0.10% | 0.03% | 0.05% | 0.15% | |
| EUR | -0.64% | -0.23% | -0.88% | -0.52% | -0.67% | -0.57% | -0.48% | |
| GBP | -0.46% | 0.23% | -0.59% | -0.29% | -0.44% | -0.34% | -0.27% | |
| JPY | 0.27% | 0.88% | 0.59% | 0.37% | 0.21% | 0.33% | 0.30% | |
| CAD | -0.10% | 0.52% | 0.29% | -0.37% | -0.02% | -0.07% | 0.03% | |
| AUD | -0.03% | 0.67% | 0.44% | -0.21% | 0.02% | 0.11% | 0.21% | |
| NZD | -0.05% | 0.57% | 0.34% | -0.33% | 0.07% | -0.11% | 0.08% | |
| CHF | -0.15% | 0.48% | 0.27% | -0.30% | -0.03% | -0.21% | -0.08% |
The heat map shows percentage changes of major currencies against each other. The base currency is picked from the left column, while the quote currency is picked from the top row. For example, if you pick the British Pound from the left column and move along the horizontal line to the US Dollar, the percentage change displayed in the box will represent GBP (base)/USD (quote).
Author
Dhwani Mehta
FXStreet
Residing in Mumbai (India), Dhwani is a Senior Analyst and Manager of the Asian session at FXStreet. She has over 10 years of experience in analyzing and covering the global financial markets, with specialization in Forex and commodities markets.
