The pound jumped against the U.S. dollar on Tuesday, after data
showed that the U.K. economy expanded in line with expectations in the
second quarter.
GBP/USD hit 1.5580 during European morning trade, the session high; the pair subsequently consolidated at 1.5578, adding 0.13%.
Sterling was also higher against the euro with EUR/GBP declining to 0.7123.
U.K. economic growth picked up in the second quarter of the year, buoyed by a big jump in oil and gas production, official figures have indicated Tuesday.
The economy expanded by an estimated 0.7% in the April to June period, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said. That compared with growth of 0.4% in the first quarter of the year.
Year-over-year, U.K. economic growth
expanded 2.6% in the second quarter, matching expectations and higher than the same period a year earlier.
In the first quarter of 2015, the U.K. economy grew at an annualized rate of 2.9%.
"After a slowdown in the first quarter of 2015, overall GDP growth has returned to that typical of the previous two years," said ONS chief economist Joe Grice.
