UK Prime Minister Theresa May survived a vote of no-confidence by Conservative members of the House of Commons, which she presided over Wednesday evening. 200 members voted for May against 117 members, less than a third of the members. But although May survived the vote of no confidence, 117 votes against it must be taken into account, which is a significant figure, causing sterling to fall.
Following the results, the pound reacted favorably against most of the majors before it started a long-term decline before the GBPUSD traded near 1.2670 levels. This comes after the decline in the currency against the backdrop of postponement of the May vote of the House of Commons on the Convention Brexit reached with the EU.
On the other hand, the Swiss National Bank kept interest rates unchanged at today's meeting for the 16th consecutive time at -0.75%, but has maintained that it may keep these rates for a while until the sustainability of economic growth and inflation are confirmed. The Bank reduced its inflationary growth forecast for 2019 from 0.8% to 0.5% and in 2020 from 1.2% to 1.0%.
As for the European Central Bank, after more than three years of resorting to the government bond purchase program in an attempt to push the economy away from the recession, it announced during its last meeting this year the official termination of the program, which amounted to 15 billion euro per month, but pointed out It will continue to re-invest in bonds owed for a long period of time.
But the bank kept interest rates at zero levels, the deposit interest rate was maintained at -0.40% and the lending interest rate was 0.25%. He also acknowledged that he would not take any action on key interest rates until at least the summer of 2019 or later to ensure inflation stabilized near 2%.
The European Central Bank governor Draghi said at the press conference that there are risks to the euro-zone economy caused by geopolitical tensions and trade protectionism. Inflation has also slowed from expected levels, which are expected to continue for some time.
The euro fell sharply following the decision, as the EURUSD dropped from 1.139 to trade near 1.134.
