Comments by UK finance minister, Rishi Sunak, on the latest GDP report
- UK economy is now in 'hard times', the figures today confirm that
- Hundreds of thousands of people have already lost their jobs
- Sadly, many more will in the coming months
The June monthly report was better-than-expected but it mainly just reaffirms sentiment that the economy is picking up further amid the easing of lockdown restrictions.
But as mentioned before, the government furlough program is still masking a lot of the underlying weakness in the economy for the time being.
As such, the outlook - especially in the latter stages of Q3 and Q4 - remains uncertain as there may be a bigger hit to the labour market, in turn the economy, moving forward.
Cable is now up to 1.3050 from around 1.3030 prior to the release of the figures but I don't see this as being a material game changer for the pound. The dollar side of the equation still holds all the cards in trading at the moment.
