GBP/CAD edged higher in calm trade on Wednesday, while being not far from recently registered 1-month high, ahead of the release of key macro data prints out of both the UK and Canada.

The S&P Global/CIPS UK Services Purchasing Managers’ Index probably decreased to 51.0 in August from a final reading of 51.5 in July.

If expectations were met, this would signal a fourth straight month of decelerating activity across the country’s services sector.

Additionally, the S&P Global/CIPS UK Manufacturing PMI probably slowed to 45.0 in August from a final 45.3 in July. If so, it would indicate the sharpest contraction in business activity since May 2020.

The preliminary figures for August are due out at 8:30 GMT.

Meanwhile, Canadian retail sales data for June will be closely watched for clues over consumer spending trend. Retail sales are expected to have stalled in June compared to May, following a 0.2% growth in the prior month.

Retail sales, which exclude automobile sales, are expected to have risen 0.3% month-over-month in June after recording zero growth in May.

The official data will be released at 12:30 GMT.

As of 7:33 GMT on Wednesday GBP/CAD was edging up 0.04% to trade at 1.7259. Yesterday the minor Forex pair went up as high as 1.7315. The latter has been the pair’s strongest level since July 18th (1.7329).

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