Investing.com - The pound fell to session lows against the dollar on Thursday after revised data confirmed that the U.K. economy grew 0.8% in the first three months of the year, disappointing some market expectations for an upward revision.
GBP/USD was down 0.17% to 1.6871, from 1.6838 ahead of the data.
Cable was likely to find support at 1.6830, Wednesday’s low and resistance at 1.6919, Wednesday’s high.
The Office for National Statistics confirmed that U.K. gross domestic product grew 0.8% in the first quarter, unchanged from its preliminary estimate and in line with forecasts. The annual rate of growth was unchanged at 3.1%.
Economic growth was boosted by a substantial rise in U.K. business spending in the first three months of this year the ONS said, as business investment surged by 2.7% quarter-on-quarter, the highest since the first quarter of 2013.
Household spending rose by 0.8% quarter-on-quarter, while government spending rose by just 0.1%.
In a separate report, the ONS said that public sector net borrowing in April, excluding one-off payments related to Royal Mail's pension plan and cash transfers from the Bank of England, totaled £11.5 billion, up nearly 2% from the same month last year.
Sterling also turned lower against the euro, with EUR/GBP edging up 0.14% to 0.8109, easing back from the 16-month lows of 0.8086 reached earlier in the session.
The euro found support after data showed that the recovery in the euro zone private sector continued in May. Manufacturing activity in the euro zone expanded at the slowest rate in six months, but the region’s service sector expanded at the fastest rate in almost three years.
Germany’s private sector continued to grow strongly, but the French private sector fell back into contraction territory this month.