UK’s Sunak: GDP data underline COVID hit to economy

Dhwani Mehta FXStreet

“Today’s GDP figures highlight the impact the pandemic continued to have on our economy at the start of the year as we tackled the new variant of the virus,” the UK Finance Minister Rishi Sunak said after the economy shrank 2.9% in January.

Additional quotes

“We will continue to protect jobs and businesses as long as this crisis lasts, we will be honest with people and put the public finances on a more sustainable path.”

“The vaccine rollout and his budget announced last week were reasons to be hopeful.”

Market reaction

Sunak’s comments fail to pacify the GBP bulls, as GBP/USD extends the drop towards 1.3900.

At the press time, the cable sheds 0.35% to trade at 1.3939.

Author

Dhwani Mehta

FXStreet

Residing in Mumbai (India), Dhwani is a Senior Analyst and Manager of the Asian session at FXStreet. She has over 10 years of experience in analyzing and covering the global financial markets, with specialization in Forex and commodities markets.

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