The pound slumped against the dollar after mixed key data this morning, with the market mainly looking ahead to midday's interest rate decision by the Bank of England. The UK currency remained around day lows after manufacturing production data and trade deficit figures came in mixed, with industrial production rising 0.2 pct during March as against a forecast 0.5 pct rise, although the manufacturing element rebounded to a 10-month high. Meanwhile, the UK trade deficit for March came in at its worst level in 10 months. The data are unlikely to shift expectations that the Bank of England will hike interest rates by a quarter point as its two-day meeting concludes today, with a 50 basis-point hike also not being ruled out. "The MPC will have PPI and CPI (inflation) data on hand scheduled to be released on Monday and Tuesday and should this data come in very strong, the MPC hike jump by 50 basis points," said analysts at BNP Paribas. The dollar also strengthened against the euro and the yen after the Federal Open Markets Committee kept rates on hold overnight, expressing continued concern about inflation.