GBP/INR is declining on Wednesday, after failing to maintain above 95.000. Currently, one British pound buys 94.270 Indian rupees, down 0.22% as of 6:30 AM UTC. Yesterday, the price broke above the resistance level at 95.000 but couldn’t consolidate above it.
The pair turned bearish after investors realized that the UK wouldn’t ease the lockdown measures for now. Elsewhere, the rupee reacted to the improving unemployment rate figure in India.
Britain’s Non-Food Prices Saw Record Decline
The coronavirus pandemic has had a devastating impact on Britain’s economy, but Prime Minister Boris Johnson is not ready to lift restrictions. Earlier today, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) said that retailers had cut the prices of non-food items by the most on record. Non-food prices have dropped this month by 3.7% year-on-year, which is the largest decline since the survey started 14 years ago.
Clothing, footwear and furniture dropped by the most, the BRC said. On the other side, food prices rose to the highest level since June 2019, by 1.8% in April, from an increase of 1.1% in March.
Shop prices overall dropped by 1.7%, the steepest decline since the beginning of 2017.
Mike Watkins of market research firm Nielsen, which sponsors the BRC’s survey, commented:
“With lockdown effectively closing the high street, non-food retailers are reliant on online sales and prices have fallen as they look to sell stock.”
Despite the economic damage, the UK will review the lockdown measures only by May 7. A spokesman for the PM said:
“It is important that they remain in place for now. We need to pass five tests before we can think about moving on to the next phase in the coronavirus response. We are not there yet.”
In India, the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) said that the unemployment rate had fallen to 21.1% in the week ended last Sunday, from 26.2% in the previous week.
Nevertheless, labour participation dropped to 35.4% last week, compared to 42.6% in the week ended March 22, before the Indian government implemented the lockdown measures. This suggests that 72 million people lost their jobs during the lockdown.
