Investing.com - U.K. industrial order expectations improved less than expected in February, dampening optimism over the country’s economic outlook, industry data showed on Thursday.
In a report, the Confederation of British Industry said its index of industrial order expectations rose by 5.0 points to a reading of 3.0 this month from January’s reading of minus 2.0. Analysts had expected the index to improve by 7.0 points to 5.0 in February.
On the index, a reading above 0.0 indicates increasing order volume is expected, below indicates expectations are for lower volume.
Anna Leach, CBI Head of Economic Analysis, said, “The manufacturing sector shows continued signs of improvement with demand high and steady and output growing strongly.”
“As the U.K. and global economies continue to strengthen over the coming months, we expect conditions to continue to improve for U.K. manufacturers and to increasingly feed through to business investment,” she added.
Following the release of that data, the pound added to losses against the U.S. dollar, with GBP/USD shedding 0.23% to trade at 1.6642, compared to 1.6648 ahead of the data.
Meanwhile, European stock markets remained lower. London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.25%, the EURO STOXX 50 dropped 0.65%, France’s CAC 40 declined 0.35%, while Germany's DAX lost 1.05%.