The Pound rounded off last week in a good position despite the changes to the travel list with Portugal being removed and no further countries added.
This saw the currency reach a new 2-month high against the Euro while things also improved against the US Dollar. However, the easing of restrictions on the 21st looks uncertain as coronavirus cases continue to rise, leaving investors concerned that the economy won’t reopen. At the end of Friday, the pound finished at 1.1639 against the Euro and 1.4161 against the US Dollar according to the Foreign Exchange Market.
On Friday, a lot of data was released for Europe including retail sales which showed that sales had dropped by 3.1% with France showing the biggest drop. This placed a considerable amount of pressure on the single currency and that isn’t going to stop this week as the European Central Bank is holding its latest monetary policy meeting.
At the end of last week, the US Dollar weakened against the Pound and the Euro after non-farm payrolls came in worse than expected. Despite this, the Dollar has made some gains today after it gained further support after it has been suggested that higher interest rates could benefit the Federal Reserve.