- Pound (GBP) holds gains after 4 winning sessions
- UK GDP upwardly revised to 1.3% QoQ
- Indian Rupee (INR) consolidates losses
- Oil prices fell 1.5% on Tuesday OPEC
The Pound Indian Rupee (GBP/INR) exchange rate is consolidating gains on Wednesday, treading water after four straight sessions of gains. The pair settled 0.8% higher in the previous session at 100.89. At 08:45 UTC, GBP/INR trades at the same level.
UK GDP for the fourth quarter was upwardly revised to 1.3% growth quarter on quarter, up from 1%. Year on year a -7.3% contraction was recorded in the final three months of the year, up from -7.8%. This means that across the whole of 2020 the UK economy contracted by -9.8%, its largest collapse in 3 centuries.
The data comes as the Pound has been broadly supported over recent weeks as the economic outlook improves. Thanks to the speedy vaccine rollout, covid numbers have fallen dramatically and the UK economy is slowly reopening. Around half of the UK adult population now has immunity to cobid. Daily cases dropped by 50% to 4040, whilst deaths dropped 25% to 56.
There is no more high impacting UK data due to be released today. Investors will look ahead to the release of manufacturing PMI data tomorrow. Manufacturing has been a bright spot for the economy through the pandemic. Tomorrow’s data is expected to confirm that it remains the case.
The Rupee has been slipping lower in recent sessions with some analysts suspecting that the Reserve Bank of India acting to bring the Rupee lower after the currency had out performed versus its emerging market peers across recent weeks.
However, the outlook for the Indian economy is starting to darken considerably as a second wave of covid spreads across the country.
Attention will now turn to current account data which is due to be released later today.
Oil prices offered support to the Rupee in the previous session, declining by over 1.5% as investors fret about future demand amid tightening lockdown restrictions. At the time of writing West Texas Intermediate trades around $60.50.
