GBPEUR EXCHANGE RATES PREDOMINANTLY DRIVEN BY THE CORONAVIRUS

It comes at a time with a plethora of record-breaking statistics. Some of which include the highest mortality figures recorded in 20 years up to the 10th April, which is twice the deaths anticipated for this period considering that the number of new cases is beginning to taper off. Others records come in the daily death rate which was recorded at 823 yesterday according to the BBC bring total fatalities to 17,337.

How this is being considered to applied to the currency market still seems to be undecided. Looking at very common currency pairings including GBPEUR and GBPUSD rates, both currently residing at 1.138 and 1.231 respectively at the close of trade yesterday, have seen reduced volatility than what was witnessed in March and the beginning of this month.

With the possibility of the Coronavirus wiping off up to $9tn dollars from the global economy according to the IMF, the rates are predominantly virus-driven. However, unsurprisingly, all three nations are still being relatively equally ravaged by economic contraction and societal damage at present and likely to continue through 2020. As a result, it is very difficult to distinguish whether the UK, Unites States or the Eurozone has been faring better which could be the reason for the smaller rate movements over the last few days.

Sterling is unlikely to receive any support, or any potential losses, through economic data moving forward as next week does not provide any significant data releases to note. Two reports published earlier this week came in the form of the Unemployment rate and Consumer Price Index which came in at 1.5% which is 0.2% lower than in February. UK Unemployment is also looking to skyrocket with Yael Selfin chief economist from KPMG predicting that 13mn jobs are at high-risk which represents 36% of the labour workforce.