Sterling, which appreciated 1.6% last week, has been volatile in the past 24 hours with the issue of Brexit, as often the case, weighing on the currency.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s written demand to the EU that it remove the Irish backstop clause from the Withdrawal Agreement received short shrift from European Council President Donald Tusk. The backstop – an insurance policy against a hard border between Northern Ireland (part of the UK) and the Republic of Ireland – has been one of the major bones of contentions within the Brexit deal which former Prime Minister May and the EU signed earlier this year. Johnson is due to meet French President Macron and German Chancellor Merkel on Saturday during the G7 Summit in France, in what could be a last ditch attempt to convince the leaders of the EU’s two largest
economies to amend the Withdrawal Agreement in order to make it more palatable to members of the British parliament.
