Pound is Down

There were some disappointing numbers out of the United Kingdom on Tuesday. The UK economy returned to growth in the fourth quarter after six consecutive quarters of contraction but fourth quarter annualized GDP expanded just 0.1%; lower than the +0.4% expected. The lowest estimate of the 30 economists surveyed by Bloomberg was +0.2% so the reading is much worse than expected. It was also weaker across all segments of the UK economy as both the manufacturing and service sectors grew by 0.1%.The data led to a swift fall in the pound sterling; it is the worst-performing major currency on Tuesday and down by a full cent against the U.S. dollar.