Following Chancellor Philip Hamond annual budget announcement Sterling has been under pressure. The GBP/EUR cross has lurched lower to 1.124, its lowest level since early August. The outline of the budget and its main components have been known for a while now and markets were seemingly expecting more (or less). The main challenge for Hammond is that the modalities of this budget are conditional on the UK and EU reaching a Brexit deal. If the two sides fail to reach a deal or Parliament votes down the deal on the table, today’s budget will effectively be null and void and the Treasury will in all likelihood have to draw up a new and far more austere budget
