Pound remains under a decent selling pressure on Monday, suffering losses for a fifth day in a row already. The recent decline has accelerated amid weaker-than-expected economic data out of the United Kingdom. In particular, manufacturing outpour came in at -1.7% in November versus -0.3% expected and +0.5% in the previous month. Meanwhile, industrial production contracted by 1.2% versus -0.1% expected and +0.4% in October. The annual manufacturing production figure came in at -2.0% versus the expected decline by -1.7%. moreover, the UK GDP declined 0.3% on a monthly basis in November versus 0/0% expected. In general, the series of data showed the country’s economy is not in its best form and could continue to show weakness at the start of 2020.
Also, the negative pressure for the pound came from the Bank of England. In particular, the member of the U.K.’s Monetary Policy Committee Gertjan Vlieghe noted that he would vote for cutting interest rates if the data doesn’t show the economy improves. As a reminder, earlier, BoE’s Silvana Tenreyro and the Governor Mark Carney hinted at cutting rates as well. Should the central bank continue this shift in its bias, the cable may suffer further losses. 
Against this backdrop, GBPUSD dipped to more than two-week lows around 1.2960 following failed attempts to regain the 1.30 handle which is key on the upside in the near term. in December, the 1.29 handle served as a significant support for the pair which was rejected from this area and staged a bullish run up to the 1.3280 region. Should the pattern repeat itself, the pound may shift into a recovery mode from 1.29, or even 1.2925 should the negative pressure persist in the immediate term. If the 1.29 level fails to withstand the selling pressure, we may see a decline towards the next target at 1.2870. still, for now, such a scenario looks unlikely, as dollar demand remains muted as well following weaker-than-expected US employment data revealed late last week. 

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