Mubasher: The annual rate of consumer credit growth continued to lose momentum, hitting 6.5% in January, official data revealed on Friday.

This underlined a further slowdown in the UK economy ahead of the Brexit, due on 29 March.

The extra amount borrowed by consumer to purchase goods and services rose to GBP 1.1 billion ($1.46 billion), the Bank of England (BOE) said.

The number of mortgage approvals for house purchases went up to 66,800 during the month.

Net mortgage lending, which usually lag behind approvals, declined slightly by GBP 3.7 billion in January, while approvals for remortgaging inched up to 50,400.

By 9:46 am GMT, the GBP/USD pair declined 0.17% to $1.3240, while the EUR/GBP pair edged up 0.07% to GBP 0.8580.