On Thursday, the British pound pared back losses against the greenback after data, demonstrating that growth in the dominant British service sector surged for a third straight month to a 17-month peak in December.
The currency pair GBP/USD reached an intra-day high of 1.2322, reacting to the data, before rebounding to 1.2295.
In December, the Markit services purchasing managers’ index added to 56.2 from November’s outcome of 55.2, compared to experts’ hopes for an outcome of 54.7.
Similar polls of the manufacturing as well as construction sectors earlier in the week exceeded expectations too.
Collectively, the PMI polls point to the economy ascending by 0.5% during the final quarter of 2016.
The report also showed that inflationary pressures are actually picking up with prices charged by service providers ascending at the fastest pace since April 2011, because of the steep sag in sterling since Brexit.
