The Great Britain pound gained today on news that Ireland backed the Brexit plans of Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May that would allow to avoid a border on the island. The currency was unable to outperform the very strong Japanese yen, though.
May tries to find a way to avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland — a prospect that the European Union finds unacceptable. She showed willingness to keep Britain in the EU customs union if everything else fails. While chief European Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier was unhappy with the idea, Dublin signaled that Ireland supports it.
Released yesterday, the seasonally adjusted IHS Markit/CIPS UK Services PMI dropped to 53.9 in September from 54.3 in August, in line with expectations. Released on Tuesday, the seasonally adjusted IHS Markit/CIPS UK Construction Purchasing Managers’ Index fell to 51.1 in September from 52.9 in August, whereas experts had predicted it to stay little changed.
GBP/USD gained from 1.2938 to 1.3012 as of 16:14 GMT today, reaching the high of 1.3041 intraday. EUR/GBP dropped from 0.8866 to 0.8840 — the lowest level since July 16. At the same time, GBP/JPY edged down from 148.15 to 148.02.
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