Sterling Falls to 1-Month Low on Brexit Woes

Investing.com - The pound tumbled on Tuesday, as the U.K. government blamed German Chancellor Angela Merkel of making any type of Brexit agreement impossible.

GBP/USD tumbled 0.7% to a one-month low of 1.2205 as of 10:53 AM ET (14:53 GMT), while EUR/GBP jumped 0.6% to 0.8974.

According to Bloomberg, Merkel told Prime Minister Boris Johnson that Northern Ireland has to remain part of the customs union in any deal, which Johnson says has paved the way for a no-deal Brexit. The latest comments have increased tensions between the two ahead of a summit next week and decreased the chances of a deal being struck.

The European Union has insisted that there is a way for controls to flow across the Irish border without additional checks and that Northern Ireland remain in the customs union until an alternative solution is found, which the U.K. has pushed back against.

EUR/USD inched down 0.1% to 1.0956.

Elsewhere, the U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a basket of six major currencies, was steady at 98.808.

The Japanese yen, which is seen as a safe haven in times of market turmoil, rose, with USD/JPY falling 0.3% to 106.93.

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