Investing.com - The pound slipped lower against its U.S. counterpart on Monday, but remained withing close distance of a seven-month peak as demand for the greenback broadly weakened as expectations for an upcoming U.S. rate hike subsided.
GBP/USD hit 1.5848 during European morning trade, the session low; the pair subsequently consolidated at 1.5870, edging down 0.10%.
Cable was likely to find support at 1.5622, the low of June 17 and resistance at 1.5930, the high of June 18 and a seven-month high.
The greenback remained under pressure after the Federal Reserve's rate statement last week tempered expectations for a rate hike later this year.
The Fed lowered both its U.S. growth forecast and its interest-rate projections, prompting investors to push back expectations on the timing of an initial rate hike.
Fed Chair Janet Yellen said the central bank wanted to see "more decisive evidence" of sustained growth before raising rates, but acknowledged that the economy has "expanded moderately" after a weak first quarter.
The pound had found some additional support on Friday afterdata showed that that U.K. public sector net borrowing hit £9.35 billion last month, up from a revised £5.46 billion in April. Analysts had expected public sector net borrowing to climb to £10.05 billion in May.
Sterling was steady against the euro, with EUR/GBP at 0.7147.
Sentiment on the single currency remained fragile after Greece submitted a new package of economic reforms on Sunday night, indicating that it is prepared to make concessions to break a deadlock in order to unlock €7.2 billion in funds.
Greece’s existing bailout is set to expire at the end of this month, when it must also repay €1.6 billion to the International Monetary Fund. A default by Greece could trigger the country’s exit from the euro zone.
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras was to hold talks with representatives from the IMF, the European Central Bank and the eurogroup of finance ministers later in the day, ahead of an emergency summit by European Union leaders.
If no deal is reached Greece could need to impose capital controls on Tuesday to stem a mounting crisis in the banking sector after bank withdrawals surpassed a billion euros a day late last week.