The Great Britain pound rose against some currencies and traded about flat versus others today. British employment data provided support to the currency, but traders were reluctant to buy the sterling as the situation with the Brexit was very unclear.
It looked like chances for hard Brexit receded after the queen signed the legislation, making it a law, which will force the government to seek Brexit delay if no deal with the European Union is reached by that point. MPs voted down the move by Prime Minister Boris Johnson to initiate a snap election. The Prime Minister himself demonstrated a softer stance, saying that a no-deal Brexit would be a “failure of statecraft”.
But the Parliament is now suspended till October 14. Johnson signaled that he still plans for Britain to leave the EU as of October 31 no matter what, though he hopes to reach a deal by that time. The pressure to reach an agreement by the deadline increased after French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian stated that France will block any attempts to delay the Brexit any further.
Britain’s Office for National Statistics released today employment data for the period of May-July. The report showed that average weakly earnings increased by 4.0%, exceeding the increase of 3.8% in the previous reporting period and the average forecast of a 3.7% rise. The unemployment rate slipped from 3.9% to 3.8%, surprising analysts, who were not expecting any change.
GBP/USD was little changed at 1.2351 as of 20:07 GMT today. EUR/GBP was at 0.8939, close to the opening level of 0.8947. GBP/NZD rose from 1.9196 to 1.9236.
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