Wednesday 18th December 2019

There’s no getting away from it. The pound took a hammering after Boris Johnson indicated the end of 2020 will be a firm deadline for Brexit, deal or no deal. The Aussie and NZ dollars also lost ground. In today’s podcast Phil Dobbie asks NAB’s Rodrigo Catril why this is, particularly as New Zealand had improved confidence numbers yesterday and home loans in Australia had an up tick. The US economy continues to show positive signs, with manufacturing and industrial output exceeding expectations, but CBI numbers showed a big fall in manufacturing in the UK. In short, one country seems to be faring somewhat better than the rest.