The British Pound (GBP) rose the euro on Friday morning.
GBP/EUR up 14 pips (up 0.14%) 1,1069 at 0900 GMT. The absolutely solid pound-euro exchange rate in the week, rose by only -0.01%.
The currency pair has experienced very little volatility over the more than 48 hours, embracing a 20 pips quote after falling sharply on Wednesday.
The pound rose on Friday in the narrow trade diversity that has been in position since the midweek fall following UK GDP figures. China’s disappointing knowledge of industry and retail affected the sense of risk overnight, but there is some tension over the euro given the increase in virus cases in France and Germany.
Markets are starting to leave the UK’s devastating fall in GDP of -20.4% in the last quarter of this week and emerging unemployment in the UK ahead of the start of new post-Brexit negotiations next week.
Investors continue to balance Europe’s outlook on the basis of viral statistics and the increased chances of a vaccine being placed this year.
Cases of the virus have increased this week in Germany and France. Germany recorded its number of cases in 3 months in 1200 cases. France recorded 2,524 cases in 24 hours, since it reopened after the close in May. The UK has taken the decision to move France to the list of countries where visitors must be quarantined for 14 days.
From flash reading, we already know that the European economy has entered recession with two consecutive quarters of economic decline. The first reading was -12.1% and today’s review shows a modest improvement to -12.0%. The small revision of GDP does not take away the enormous unrest facing Europe with such a weak economy.
The euro most commonly ignored customer value inflation (CPI) in France, up 0.9% in July, unchanged since June.