The pound had a choppy day against the euro and dollar yesterday, with some speculating that the gains of the past two weeks are now levelling out. New forecasts by the Centre for Economics and Business Research claim British households’ disposable income over the next three months will fall by 17%, and that unemployment will rise by 2.1m – but also calculate that this effect has been halved from what it would have been had the government not implemented its furlough scheme.
That scheme opened for employers last night, seeing 67,000 claims in the first half an hour. The scheme has now been extended until June, following the extension of lockdown measures. This morning’s unemployment rate figures have shown a small increase to 4%, up 0.1%. Unemployment claims also increased by 12,200: less than expected and still below 2019 levels.
