The Pound is paring losses versus the Swedish Krona in early trade on Wednesday. Improved risk sentiment lifted the Swedish Krona 0.3% versus the Pound in the previous session. The Pound Swedish Krona exchange rate close at 11.9184 after the UK started lock down and dire UK data.
At 06:45 UTC today, GBP/SEK is trading 0.4% higher at 11.9356, as volatility in the pair continues.
UK Coronavirus Death Toll Jumps
The Pound declined versus the Krona in the previous session, although gained versus most of its major peers, after Prime Minister Boris Johnson locked down Britain to protect the public from coronavirus and following a record-breaking drop in service sector activity.
The UK service sector purchasing managers index printed at 35.7 on the index, whereby 50 separates expansion from contraction. This was a significant drop from 53.2 in February. The service sector is the dominant sector in the UK economy, which includes banks, restaurants and hotels, and accounts for around 80% of economic activity. The very measures that the government is implementing to protect the British public from coronavirus, are causing demand for goods and services to evaporate.
Today investors will continue digesting the latest coronavirus developments as data shows the biggest daily spike in coronavirus deaths with 89, taking the total to 424.
UK inflation data will be released for February. However, given that this was from before the number of coronavirus cases escalated the data is unlikely to attract much attention.
Swedish PPI Data To Be Ignored
The Swedish Krona is trending southwards today as the Swedish government takes a softer approach towards coronavirus. Whilst the rest of Europe is going on lock down, Sweden has decided to keep primary schools, restaurants and bars open whilst also encouraging people to go outside for fresh air.
This advise stands in stark contrast to the strict tone being adopted in the rest of Europe and has sparked a debate over whether Sweden is doing the right thing?
So far this week the Swedish economic calendar has been quiet. Today sees the release of inflation at wholesale levels. However, this is a figure from February, before coronavirus numbers in Sweden or Europe started to really escalate. Therefore, the data is not expected to attract much attention. Instead tomorrow’s consumer and business confidence figures for March could create much more volatility.
