Investing.com - The pound slid to the day’s lows against the U.S. dollar on Tuesday after data showing that Britain’s annual inflation rate unexpectedly held steady in July, easing pressure on the Bank of England to raise rates.
GBP/USD was down 0.36% to 1.2918 by 05.15 a.m. ET (09.15 a.m. GMT), from around 1.2950 ahead of the report.
Consumer prices rose 2.6% compared with a year earlier, the Office for National Statistics said, slightly below economists' expectations for a 2.7% annual rise.
Falling motor fuel prices were offset by higher prices for clothes, utilities and food, the ONS said.
Excluding oil prices and other volatile components such as food, core consumer price inflation rose by 2.4% from a year earlier, compared with economists' expectations for 2.5%.
The retail price index, the level used by the government to set rail fare increases, rose by an annualized 3.6% in July, up from 3.5% in the previous month.
Economists had expected an unchanged reading.
In its latest assessment of the economy released last week, the BoE said it expected inflation to peak at 3% in October.
Two policymakers voted in favor of hiking rates at the BoE’s last meeting but Governor Mark Carney said that uncertainty arising from Brexit supported the case for keeping rates on hold.
Sterling was also lower against the euro, with EUR/GBP rising 0.17% to 0.9102 from around 0.9074 earlier.