- Pound (GBP) moves higher supported by BoE’s move away from negative rates
- UK vaccine programme on target to hit 15 million
- Euro (EUR) pressurized amid slow vaccine rollout
- German wholesale proce data awaited in quiet session
The Pound Euro (GBP/EUR) exchange rate is advancing for a second straight session. The pair settled +0.1% on Wednesday at €1.1409 in another muted session in what is so far shaping up to be a quiet week. At 05:15 UTC, GBP/EUR trades +0.1% at €1.1418.
The Pound continues to find support from the Bank of England moving away from the implementation of negative interest rates and thanks to the UK’s rapid vaccine rollout programme.
The total number of people in Britain who have received a covid vaccine has climbed to 13 million after another 415,000 vaccines were administered on Tuesday. The government on track to reach the 15 million target by the middle of the month. The number of covid cases in the UK continues to drop noticeably with just over 13,000 new daily infections.
Yet despite the successful rollout, any plans of significant easing of the lockdown conditions were quickly shot down by the Transport Secretary who told the UK that summer holidays were off the cards. This is another blow for the travel industry which could mean further job losses.
There is no high impacting data due to be released today. Attention will turn to Q4 GDP data due on Friday.
The Euro slipped lower versus the Pound but held steady versus the US Dollar on Wednesday.
The final reading of German inflation data for January confirmed the initial reading of 0.8% month on month, up from 0.5% in December. On an annual basis inflation increased 1%.
Europe has lagged behind the UK and the US on the covid vaccine rollout and that has hampered demand for the common currency. The fear being that the longer that it takes to deploy the vaccine, the slower the economic recovery.
There is little on the Eurozone economic calendar, with German wholesale price index and a speech by ECB De Guindos in focus.
