GBP/INR is moving in a sideways trend in early trading on Monday. Currently, the pair is fluctuating at around 93.280, showing no daily change as of 5:32 AM UTC. The markets are quiet after India celebrated Republic Day on Sunday.
He UK is set to leave the European Union (EU) this Friday, which will be a historic moment and will likely have an impact on the pair. Prime Minister Boris Johnson finally managed to complete a mission that Theresa May failed to achieve. He is fulfilling his promise to get Brexit done thanks to his major win in the early election last month.
However, the most difficult part only starts after Brexit, with the UK and the European Union having only 11 months to reach a complex trade agreement that, according to European leaders, requires two years at least. But Johnson made it illegal to extend the Brexit transition period beyond December 2020, prompting fears of a no-deal Brexit.
Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay recently said that the UK would reveal more details about its objectives and priorities for a free trade deal with the EU in February. He told BBC:
“We are going to publish our objectives for the negotiation (…) in due course after the 31st.”
Negotiations between the UK and the EU are expected to start in March. Barclay noted:
“The key issue is that we will have control of our rules, we will not be a rule taker, we will not diverge for the sake of diverging, we start from a position of alignment. But the key opportunity is that we will be able to set our standards, high standards, on worker’s rights, on the environment, on state aid as part of that trade policy.”
On the other side, European Commission, which is the negotiator on behalf of the EU countries, will publish its objectives next month before sending them to EU governments on February 25.
Barclay said that Britain’s goal was to agree a zero-tariff, zero-quota, broadly ambitious trade policy with the EU.
