The Pound caught a bit of a relief in today’s European session, but the currency is still in its fourth straight day of decline against the US Dollar at the time of this writing.

The UK government saw a better than expected 11.4 billion Pound budget surplus in January, according to the Office for National Statistics. The extra surplus was a result of the BoE’s first payment to the treasury of gilt-coupon income amounting to 3.8 billion Pounds from the quantitative easing program.

The Pound jumped about thirty points following the release, however those gains were soon erased as GBP/USD fell back to 1.5200. Earlier in the session, the pair set a new 2.5-year low at 1.5131. That level may now provide support, and resistance could be provided by a broken low at 1.5268.

The Euro continued to set new monthly lows in today’s session following a downturn in the composite PMI for output. News of a Spanish bond sale beating the maximum target failed to bring the single currency higher in Forex markets. Additionally, German Chancellor Merkel said that a confident Europe can emerge stronger from the crisis.

This afternoon, the US inflation for January will be announced, 1.6% is expected.

GBPUSD Daily: February 21, 2013

Chart created by Benjamin Spier using Marketscope 2.0

— Written by Benjamin Spier, DailyFX Research. Feedback can be sent to bbspier@fxcm.com .

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