The Bank of England will “begin structured engagement on the operational considerations in 2020 Q4”. That’s the phrase in the minutes accompanying today’s interest rate decision that saw sterling tumbling at midday yesterday.
Despite this, sterling ended the day roughly back where it started after an encouraging comment from EU Commission president on Brexit talks talks, which she said she was convinced would lead to a deal.
The Bank expects GDP for 2020 to be around 7% below 2019 slightly less bad than originally expected. . There are no more data releases ahead of the weekend, and there are no more Brexit talks scheduled for next week either, so the main focus is likely to be on the continued spread of Covid and the likelihood of a further lockdown.
