Investing.com - The pound was lower against the U.S. dollar on Friday, despite the release of better than expected U.K. trade balance data as global growth concerns continued to weigh on market sentiment.
GBP/USD hit 1.6044 during European morning trade, the pair's lowest since Wednesday; the pair subsequently consolidated at 1.6058, sliding 0.37%.
Cable was likely to find support at 1.6023, the low of October 7 and resistance at 1.6227, Thursday's high.
In a report, the U.K. Office for National Statistics said the trade deficit narrowed to £9.10 billion in August from £10.41 billion in July, whose figure was revised from a previously estimated deficit of £10.19 billion.
Analysts had expected the trade deficit to narrow to £9.60 billion in August.
The data came a day after the Bank of England voted to keep interest rates on hold at 0.5% and to keep the size of its asset purchase program unchanged at £375 billion.
But market sentiment remained under pressure as concerns over the global economy persisted after the International Monetary Fund cut its global economic growth forecasts for the third time this year on Tuesday and warned that the recovery remains weak and uneven.
The dollar found some support after the U.S. Department of Labor reported on Thursday that the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending October 4 decreased by 1,000 to 287,000 from the previous week’s revised total of 288,000.
But the greenback's gains were expected to remain limited as the minutes of the Federal Reserve's September 16-17 policy meeting suggested that the bank is in no hurry to raise interest rates and mentionned concerns over the dollar's strength.
Elsewhere, sterling was fractionally lower against the euro, with EUR/GBP adding 0.09% to 0.7886.