020 7898 0500Brexit speculation continues to drive price action. This time it wasn’t Article 50 but the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development that caused sterling weakness. The OECD released its growth forecasts for 2017/2018 yesterday and, in line with other forecasts on UK growth, we saw the UK hit with downgrades as a hard Brexit is becoming more likely. The GBP/USD pair was particularly affected as the OECD backed Donald Trump’s planned tax cuts and public spending increase, designed to reignite growth in the US.
Attention in the UK also focused on a report commissioned by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) to highlight the length of time a sector-by-sector trade deal could take. Former Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg , former Conservative minister Anna Soubry and Labour MP Chuka Umunna have stated that it could take 25 years to negotiate a sector-by-sector trade deal to replace the “single market access”. On a more positive note, the UK and Norway will begin a dialogue on trade policy in December.
In terms of data releases, we have net lending figures and UK mortgage approvals out today.
