The pound weakened against other major currencies after the UK services PMI showed a sharp fall in October, suggesting UK growth is set for a sharper slowdown. The Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply PMI today dropped to 53.1 in October, the lowest in over four years, from 56.7 in September. The new business component fell sharply, although prices charged rose for the third month, supporting the trend of weaker growth and higher inflation. The data "may temper some of the market's enthusiasm for the pound, which has built over the last couple of weeks despite a run of generally soft UK data," said Daragh Maher at Calyon. He does not expect today's figures to change the interest rate decision on Thursday, when the Bank of England is forecast to leave rates at 5.75 pct, but does add to the case for easing in early 2008. The pound fell to 2.0805 usd from 2.0855 usd before the data, and also lost ground to the euro, which rose to 0.6954 stg from 0.6935 stg.