The pound slid to an all-time low versus the euro and lost ground to the dollar on Friday as soft house price and consumer confidence data pointed to a British economic slowdown.
British house prices fell for a fifth straight month in March, according to data from the Nation-wide Building Society, bringing the annual increase to its lowest in 12 years and showing a key driver of the economy is faltering. A Reuters poll predicting that house prices will fall in 2008 on an annual basis for the first time since the mid-1990s also signalled problems ahead for Britain's economy.
Meanwhile British consumer morale fell to its lowest level in more than 15 years in March according to a GfK NOP survey as households grew more gloomy about the economic outlook than at any time since the downturn of the early 1990s.
By 1449 GMT, the euro had risen as high as 79.29 pence, up more than 0.7 percent on the day and 7.5 percent so far this year. The pound was down 0.7 percent at $1.9941 and matched last week's 11-year troughs on the Bank of England's trade weighted measure, at 93.1. Sterling got brief support from data which revealed a narrower than expected current account deficit of 8.5 billion pounds compared with the 18 billion pound gap forecast by analysts.
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