The Pound has fallen against the Norwegian Krone at the start of trading this week, owing to investors being unnerved by Monday’s seemingly-fruitless Brexit talks.
The Krone’s ascent against the Pound comes mainly due to Sterling’s weakness, given that Norwegian data so far this week has been fairly uninspiring.
Last week, the Pound Norwegian Krone exchange rate climbed modestly.
Pound Losses Recorded as Threat of Scottish Breakaway Remains on the Table
The Pound failed to make any headway against the Norwegian Krone on Monday, falling by -0.7% due to high uncertainty about the future of the UK.
The main focus was on a meeting between Prime Minister Theresa May and the leaders of the UK’s devolved nations to discuss how Brexit would be implemented.
Chief among the issues of the table was an apparent lack of respect for Scotland in proceedings, which remained unresolved by the end of the talks.
Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon voiced her grievances after the talks, stating that;
‘In terms of me getting a sense of whether Scotland is going to be listened to at all, that period between now and triggering of Article 50 is absolutely crucial’.
Sturgeon has previously hinted at holding another independence referendum and it remains to be seen if this latest talk will have gone any way towards dissuading her from such a sentiment.
Lacklustre Norwegian Data Fails to Prevent NOK GBP Exchange Rate Rise
Economic news out of Norway on Monday failed to provide much support for the Norwegian Krone, but the Pound’s weakness enabled a NOK GBP rise regardless.
Data consisted of improving industrial confidence in Q4, as well as falling retail sales figures on the month and year in December.
In oil news, the cost of Brent crude dropped over the course of the day, to around $55.32 per barrel.
GBP/NOK Exchange Rate Forecast
This week, Pound/Norwegian Krone exchange rate movement may occur as a result of Tuesday’s debating of the Article 50 bill by MPs in the House of Commons, Wednesday’s manufacturing PMI, Thursday’s construction PMI and Friday’s services PMI.
In the former case, the debates are expected to extend until midnight, which might result in the Pound being unsettled all through the course of the day.
Elsewhere, all three PMI reports are forecast to fall for January while a Bank of England (BoE) interest rate decision on Thursday is expected to bring no change to the current rate of 0.25%.
Norwegian news to watch out for includes Wednesday’s manufacturing PMI for January and Friday’s unemployed persons stats for the same month.
At the time of writing, the PMI was expected to tick down from 51.4 to 51, which could weaken the Norwegian Krone. For the unemployment result, a rise from 101.46k to 101.9k is predicted.