020 7898 0500Sterling remained under pressure on Friday, losing further ground against the euro, but made some slight gains against a weak US dollar. Sterling remains close to the 14-month low vs. the US dollar reached on Wednesday after suffering its longest losing streak against the dollar since the financial crisis, the weakness remains in spite of some reasonable data released last week with unemployment at a 43-year low and retail sales beating market estimates. The market seems to be ignoring any positive data released from the UK and is focused on the increasing talk of a “no-deal” Brexit and the decreased likeliness of a rate hike in the UK.
It’s a very quiet data week for sterling with the Public Sector Net Borrowing figures released on Tuesday the only major release. Any Brexit related news is likely to have a much bigger impact on the currency’s fortunes and the government is due to release some Brexit “no-deal” contingency papers this week, although this is unlikely to cause a significant movement in the market unless it includes something particularly surprising.
