Investing.com - The pound edged lower against the dollar on Monday, but continued to remain supported above the 1.70 level amid heightened expectations for a rate hike by the Bank of England before the end of this year.
GBP/USD dipped 0.09% to 1.7144, not far from Friday’s highs of 1.7165, the most since October 2009.
Cable is likely to find support at 1.7125 and resistance at 1.8000.
Sterling has strengthened broadly since the start of this year, gaining more than 15% against the dollar amid expectations that the deepening U.K. recovery will prompt the BoE to raise rates before the end of the year.
Business surveys last week indicated that the U.K. economy continued to grow at a strong pace in the second quarter, after the economy expanded at the fastest annual rate since 2007 in the first three months of 2014.
The dollar was boosted after data late last week showed that the U.S. economy added 288,000 jobs last month, well above expectations for jobs growth of 212,000, while the unemployment rate ticked down to 6.1%, the lowest in almost six years.
The strong data sparked speculation that the Federal Reserve could bring forward its timetable for raising interest rates.
Elsewhere, the euro fell to almost two-year lows against the pound, with EUR/GBP at 0.7914, the weakest since September 2012.
The euro remained under pressure after European Central Bank Vice President Benoit Coeure said Sunday that rates will remain on hold for an extended period to ensure monetary stability in the euro zone.
The ECB left all rates on hold at its meeting last Thursday, after cutting rates to record lows in June in a bid to stave off the threat of persistently low inflation in the region.
Data on Monday showed that German industrial output unexpectedly dropped 1.8% in May, fuelling concerns over the outlook for the broader euro zone economy.