The pound has weakened further this morning and is currently around 2% weaker than last Monday against the euro, although only very marginally down against USD.
That is mainly down to the increasing chance of an EU recovery deal, but suspicions are also rising that the British economy is recovering more slowly than the rest of Europe, and data releases this week could confirm this, negatively affecting the pound.
The other big data releases will be services and manufacturing PMI, which should bounce back to around 52 or 53 as the hospitality sector in particular reopens.
Analysts have been looking at alternative sources of data to suggest how fast the return to normality is happening, including transport, and it looks like the UK is still in the slow lane compared to most of Europe, according to data from Google.
Combined with the normal Brexit uncertainty, this does not bode well for sterling, which has often dipped in recent years in late July even without the current problems.
