Investing.com - The pound fell to the day’s lows against the dollar on Wednesday after data showing that U.K. manufacturing output fell at the fastest rate in nearly three years in March, adding to signs that the economy is slowing.
GBP/USD touched lows of 1.4389, down from around 1.4421 ahead of the data.
The Office for National Statistics reported that manufacturing output in the U.K. fell 1.9% in March from the same month a year earlier, the steepest annual fall since May 2013.
The fall was led by a 4% drop in the manufacture of basic metals & metal products, particularly iron and steel.
For the month, manufacturing output edged up by 0.1%, missing forecast for a 0.3% increase, after falling 0.9% in February.
Industrial output rose 0.3% in March and was 0.2% lower on a year-over-year basis.
The figures did not point towards any revision of the estimate of first quarter economic growth released last month, the ONS said.
The preliminary estimate showed that that rate of growth in Britain’s economy slowed to 0.4% in the three months to March from 0.6% in the previous quarter.
The ONS said it had no evidence that uncertainty over the looming referendum on Britain’s European Union membership on June 23 had hit output.
The weak data came as investors were looking ahead to the outcome of the Bank of England’s monetary policy meeting on Thursday.
The BoE was widely expected to keep monetary policy on hold.
Sterling was also lower against the euro, with EUR/GBP advancing 0.42% to 0.7907 from 0.7895 ahead of the data.