- Pound (GBP) lifted by vaccine programme
- Awaiting slew of data across the week
- Euro (EUR) supported by risk on trade
- German ZEW Sentiment & Q4 GDP data on Tuesday
The Pound Euro (GBP/EUR) exchange rate is. The pair settled at €1.1418 on Friday booking mild gains of 0.1% across the week. This marked the third straight week of gains for the pair. At 05:15 UTC, GBP/EUR trades +0.1% at €1.1400.
The UK reached a significant milestone on Sunday after data revealed that 25 million first doses of the covid vaccine had been administered in the UK. With a population of 67 million, the UK vaccine rollout is one of the fastest in the world and marks one of the few success of the government through the pandemic.
The number of new covid cases continued to fall to just shy of 11,000 new infections whilst the death toll fell to 258.
The success of the vaccine programme has led to growing pressure on the government to begin easing lockdown restrictions. A letter from 63 Conservative lawmakers called for all lockdown measures to be lifted by the end of April. This is the date by which the government is aiming to have given the first vaccine to all groups which have accounted for 99% of covid deaths.
The Prime Minister is due to set out the map out of lockdown of 22nd February.
There is no high impacting UK economic data due for release today. Later in the week UK inflation data, retail sales & PMI data could drive movement in the Pound.
Concerns over the Eurozone’s struggles to rollout covid vaccines quickly have weighed on demand for the common currency. That said, the situation is starting to show signs of improving which could lift the Euro.
Meanwhile risk on trade lends support to the common currency owing to a weaker US Dollar.
Whilst there is no high impacting Eurozone data today, Tuesday sees the release of German ZEW sentiment data and the Eurozone’s second reading of the fourth quarter GDP. Stronger than forecast numbers could offer support to the currency.
