Great Britain Pound Ends Friday Strong

The Great Britain pound was one of the strongest major currencies on Friday despite plenty of negative fundamentals that were weighing on the currency. Over the week, though, the sterling kept losses versus most of its major peers.

One of the possible reasons for the currency’s gains was investors’ optimism that persisted since the trade deal between the United Kingdom and the European Union that was secured at the last minute. Additionally, news that Britain approved the Moderna vaccine for usage also supported the pound. Britain agreed to purchase 10 million more doses of the vaccine than was initially planned, totaling 17 million. The Moderna vaccine will not be in the first stage of Britain’s vaccine rollout, though.

Market analysts are skeptical about the ability of the sterling to keep rising. There are plenty of factors that can bring the currency down: the strict lockdown initiated after the new strain of the COVID-19 started to spread across the country, the outlook for negative interest rates from the Bank of England, and the negative impact that separation of the UK from the EU will have on British companies.

As for Friday’s macroeconomic reports in Britain, the Halifax House Price Index rose by just 0.2% in December, whereas experts were expecting the same 1.0% rate of growth as in November. The index rose by 2.6% on a quarterly basis and by 6.0% on an annual basis.

GBP/USD was up from 1.3563 to 1.3636 intraday but has retreated to 1.3566 by 19:40 GMT today. EUR/GBP dropped from 0.9044 to 0.9003. GBP/CHF rose from 1.2003 to 1.2025, and its session high was at 1.2058.

© NewsInspector for Forex News, 2021. |
Permalink |
No comment |
Add to
del.icio.us

Post tags: COVID-19 Vaccine, EUR/GBP, GBP/CHF, GBP/USD, Halifax, House Prices, Pound, United Kingdom

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

negative interest rates