Investing.com - The pound remained lower against the U.S. dollar on Monday, as the release of downbeat Chinese trade data over the weekend continued to weigh on demand for risk-related assets.
GBP/USD hit 1.6622 during U.S. morning trade, the pair's lowest since February 27; the pair subsequently consolidated at 1.6627, retreating 0.52%.
Cable was likely to find support at 1.6584, the low of February 24 and resistance at 1.6786, the session high.
Market sentiment weakened after data released over the weekend showed that Chinese exports dropped 18.1% on a year-over-year basis in February, confounding expectations for a 6.8% increase, following a rise of 10.6% in January.
A separate report showed that the annual rate of inflation in China slowed to 2.0% in February, from 2.5% in January.
Meanwhile, demand for the dollar remained supported after the Labor Department reported Friday that the U.S. economy added 175,000 jobs in February, well above expectations for 149,000 new jobs.
The jobs report eased concerns over soft U.S. employment and other economic data seen in the past few months. The strong figure indicated that the Federal Reserve is likely to continue to scale back its stimulus program, which has weighed on the value of the dollar.
In the U.K., Bank of England Deputy Governor Charles Bean expressed concerns Monday that a further appreciation in sterling would damage hopes for an export boost to the economic recovery.
“Any further appreciation of sterling, which has risen almost 10% in trade-weighted terms since March, would not be particularly helpful in terms of facilitating a rebalancing towards net exports”, he said.
Sterling was lower against the euro, with EUR/GBP gaining 0.46% to 0.8340.