Increased Downside Risks For GBP/USD

 | Jul 03, 2015 08:47AM ET

Increased downside risks

Let us consider the GBP/USD pair on the daily timeframe. On June 3rd, the Bank of England decided to keep the interest rate unchanged at 0.5%, and to leave the monetary stimulus program unchanged at GBP 375 billion. June 30th final report indicated the UK economy grew 0.4% in the first quarter due to growing domestic demand, as the current account deficit of 20.6 billion pounds, or 5.8% of GDP, subtracted 0.6 percentage point from growth. The economic outlook of UK is uncertain, as the winning Conservative party plans to hold a referendum on Britain’s membership in European Union by the end of 2017 and possibly as early as 2016. The conservative party has also pledged to close the budget deficit in five years, and Chancellor George Osborne is going to announce the austerity measures on July 8th when he presents the government’s budget for the next four years. The fiscal tightening will likely act as a drag on growth. The political and economic uncertainty from the possible Greek exit from euro-zone in turn increases the downside risks for UK economy. On this backdrop, US economy appears to be on track of firm recovery, with solid June jobs report increasing the likelihood of September rate hike. The British pound will likely weaken against the US dollar in near term, given the divergent growth prospects and monetary policies of the Federal Reserve and Bank of England.