Yes, you read that correctly, it is finally going to happen! For those of you who haven’t seen the latest from the House of Lords, Theresa May was defeated after the House stated that Ministers should guarantee EU national’s the right to stay in the UK after Brexit. The House of Lords has now passed an amendment that will guarantee rights of EU citizens, the only issue with this is that this amendment can be removed by the time it reaches the House of Commons, so, unfortunately, this could all be nothing.
Even with the above happening, British PM, Theresa May is still confident that she will be able to push through legislation to allow her to trigger Article 50 and plans to do so on the 15th March.
Now you’re thinking, “What will happen to the Pound Once Article 50 has been triggered?” (And if you weren’t then… you are now!)
This really is the million Pound question… Analysts from all major banks across the globe have thrown in their predictions, and the consensus seems to be that the Pound will continue to weaken even after Article 50 has been triggered. Danske Bank is expecting the GBPUSD exchange rate to be at 1.19 by the end of March, Deutsche Bank is expecting the Pound to fall to 1.14, and others believe we will see the rate at 1.05.
Today’s UK services PMI proved to be an important market mover. The survey of purchasing managers in the UK’s services sector slowed coming in at 53.3 from an expected 54.
As soon as the figures were published Sterling reacted and devalued.
Sterling has lost almost a fifth of its value since Britain voted to leave to the European Union last June, with worries about a fresh Scottish independence referendum and a dollar boosted by U.S. interest rate hike expectations this week pushing the pound to a six-week lows.
Prime Minister Theresa May is expected to lay into the governing record of the Scottish National Party, which has a majority in Edinburgh’s devolved parliament and is considering calling a fresh independence vote, in a speech in Glasgow today.