The pound felt slight pressure due to comments from Fitch rating agency that the UK is at risk of losing its AAA rating. If the austerity measures don’t stay in place there is a possibility of a downgrade.

George Osborne who implemented the biggest squeeze on government spending since WW 2 is scheduled to present a budget report on the 21st of March. This may be the reason for the comments received by rating agencies to encourage the UK government to stick to their austerity measures.  

The pound felt slight pressure due to comments from Fitch rating agency that the UK is at risk of losing its AAA rating. If the austerity measures don’t stay in place there is a possibility of a downgrade.

George Osborne who implemented the biggest squeeze on government spending since WW 2 is scheduled to present a budget report on the 21st of March. This may be the reason for the comments received by rating agencies to encourage the UK government to stick to their austerity measures.  

The IMF has approved €28Bn to bailout Greece. They are prepared to release €1.65Bn immediately to Athens to help keep Greece funded until 2014. Even though Greece needs to do more to cut red tape to help businesses grow and to regulate their tax system the IMF-EU package has been agreed. 

The euro continues to remain under pressure as employment declined towards the end of 2011 across the whole of the Eurozone. Employment declined by 0.2% in the final quarter of 2011. 

There is some good news from across the pond as US jobless claims fell to a four year low. Manufacturing in the north east of the United States continued to improve, showing more signs that the world largest economy is on the road to recovery. Risk appetite caused modest dollar weakness.   

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