Dollar surge sends sterling to three-week low

Sterling fell to a three-week low against the dollar on Tuesday, suffering along with other European currencies from a jump in the greenback’s value as interest rate differentials moved in its favor.

Data on UK industrial and manufacturing output, often secondary to that on the services sector in an economy which relies heavily on financial and other services for growth, were mixed, giving markets little new to play on in the debate on when the Bank of England could raise interest rates.

The pound, which has also proven relatively steady as the euro zone’s Greek crisis worsened, gained around half a percent to 70.72 pence per euro. Against the dollar it fell 0.6 percent to $1.5503.