Germany
After all the sturm and drang of the German election at the weekend, the outcome can be summed up as the far Right AFD making the most seat gains at +69 and the Far Left Die Linke wining +25 seats but with the pyrrhic victory of no other parties being willing to work with either party. Despite the SPD having lost 86 seats the only feasible working coalition is for a so called Grand Alliance to be formed between the centrist CDU/CSU and the diminished SPD. So all a bit ho hum after all that. Of course behind closed doors in smoke filled rooms the nuances and details of appointments and policies will be closely fought over, but the bottom line is that newly minted Chancellor Merz did not get the majority that he sought so he has to make nice with the SPD. Klar?
GBP/EUR 1.2109.
UK Civil Service
The Conservative Government had the temerity to introduce a return to work policy for the UK’s Civil Service that required them to work a minimum 3 days per week in their offices. The newish Labour Government initially sought to please the Civil Service by announcing that it did not mind where they worked and therefore the 60% rule would not apply. Then inevitably it changed its collective mind and reintroduced the minimum 3 days per week rule. Only it is not enforced with less than 50% of Government Departments staffed 3 days a week in December of last year. 78% of Civil Servants polled were against the 60% rule and 61% of respondents felt it harmed productivity. Some private sector 9-5 and 5×5 wage slaves may resent those office shy government workers.
GBP/USD 1.2641.