The new Job Protection Scheme announced by Chancellor Rishi Sunak helped to push Pound exchange rates higher during trading on Thursday. The news was welcomed by investors and caused the GBP/EUR rate to a one week high of 1.0922 and nudged the GBP/USD rate up to 1.2748 according to the Foreign Exchange Market. The scheme is designed to help support jobs through the latest coronavirus restrictions while helping to keep levels of unemployment down. However, there are more concerns that further restrictions in the UK are imminent and that could cause problems for the currency and the UK economy.
The Euro struggled through trading yesterday as the single currency was battling against the continued increase in coronavirus cases throughout Europe. The disappointing outcomes of the German IFO survey, whereby business sentiment was increasing at a slower rate than initially expected during September.
Investors found comfort in the US Dollar causing it to strike higher as concerns around a global recovery and coronavirus still caused problems. Despite this, there was bad news surrounding US jobless claims as it increased at a faster rate than expected last week and that did slow down any gains during trading yesterday.