GBP
Yesterday MP’s voted in favour of asking Theresa May to request a delay to Brexit to the 30th June. Whilst Theresa May was holding last-minute Brexit talks with the French President Emmanuel Macron 420 MPs voted in favour and 110 voted against the extension. May urged Macron to back her request to delay Brexit again until 30 June, having earlier met German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin.
After the talks, Ms Merkel said a delay that runs to the end of the year or the start of 2020 was a possibility. Stef Blok, the Dutch foreign minister said that “If more time is needed to avoid a hard Brexit, then we should allow for more time.”
At a meeting on Brexit in Luxembourg, almost all ministers from the 27 remaining member states left open the possibility of an extension beyond the summer, indicating the EU is shifting towards a potentially long delay to Brexit. The condition for the extension being that Britain had to show a credible political plan and would not damage EU or the interests of the bloc.
An EU summit today is expected to approve a delay to Britain’s April 12 exit date, but also to provide a framework to map out Britain’s path to approving an exit deal.
Key Announcements
- 12:45- EUR: ECB Interest rate Rate Decision Expected to be unchanged at 0%
- 13:30- EUR: ECB Monetary Policy Press Conference
- 13:30- USD: US Consumer Price Index (CPI) YoY expected to be higher at 1.8% from 1.5%
- 19:00- USD: FOMC Meeting Minutes
