Forex Pros – The pound tumbled to a five-month low against the U.S. dollar on Monday, as risk aversion escalated ahead of a Greek parliamentary vote on austerity measures demanded by international lenders.
GBP/USD hit 1.5914 during early European trade, the pair’s lowest since January 31; the pair subsequently consolidated at 1.5936, slipping 0.12%.
Cable was likely to find support at 1.5819, the low of January 31 and resistance at 1.6046, Friday’s high.
Greece’s Prime Minister George Papandreou must secure parliamentary backing for a EUR28.4 billion austerity package on Wednesday, in order to in order to receive a second tranche of bailout loans from the European Union and International Monetary Fund and avert a sovereign debt default.
The pound was also weaker after last week’s minutes of the Bank of England’s June meeting showed that some policymakers believed additional monetary stimulus may be necessary.
In contrast, Federal Reserve policymakers said last week that the bank was winding up its monetary easing program at the end of this month.
Meanwhile, the pound was higher against the euro, with EUR/GBP slipping 0.25% to hit 0.8869.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to publish official data on personal earnings and expenditure as well as data on the consumer price index.
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