Pound slides to 12-year low

LONDON (Reuters) - The pound fell to 12-year low on a trade-weighted basis on Thursday as weak house price data pushed it close to a record low versus the euro.

House prices fell 1.9 percent in the month of August, to post their biggest annual drop since records began in 1991, the Nationwide building society said.

By 8:10 a.m. the pound was at 89.8 on a trade-weighted basis, its lowest since October 1996. The pound was at 80.44 pence. hovering close to a record trough of 80.97 pence.

Analysts said there was further scope for sterling weakness with the release of more data at 11 a.m.

"The European market is looking forward to the CBI distributive trades data due later today ... which has been particularly weak, so we're wondering if some of the weakness is in anticipation (for a disappointing figure) coming up to the release," said David Page, economist at Investec.

(Reporting by Naomi Tajitsu and Simon Falush)