The Pound Sterling was lower in Thursday trading with worries over the Brexit talks keeping currency traders jittery. The latest news from the Brexit negotiations is a disagreement over draft guidelines which could prevent Britain from obtaining a transition deal before this month’s summit. Yesterday, Philip Hammond, the Finance Minister of Britain had said that a deal would be on the table by the end of this month; markets, however, are less confident of that actually happening, given the guidelines which were also just released.
As reported at 11:32 am (GMT) in London, the GBP/USD was trading lower at $1.3867, down 0.25%; the pair has ranged from a low of $1.3860 while the peak is at $1.3910. The EUR/GBP was trading at 0.89232 Pence, down 0.08609%; earlier, the pair had hit a low of 0.89170 Pence while the peak is at 0.89369 Pence.
Markets Focus on ECB
The Euro is under some pressure ahead of the European Central Bank’s statement on its monetary policy decision. The ECB had left benchmark rates unchanged at 0% for its borrowing rate and -0.4% for its deposit rate. What markets will be watching is any change in the language of the statement which will be issued by ECB Chief, Mario Draghi. A discussion on the slowdown in EU area inflation is likely on the agenda, and investors are anxious to see if that will delay the ECB’s exit strategy for the quantitative easing policy it has long had in place. Currently, the EUR/USD is trading at $1.24, down 0.31%.