Even though the Markit manufacturing PMI for February didn’t fall quite as far as expected on Thursday, the -0.1 slip in the index was still enough to take the measure down to an eight-month low. A sharper-than-expected fall in net consumer credit and net lending secured on dwellings during January further dampened appetite for the Pound.

Early losses against the Euro were recovered on Thursday afternoon after strong US data pressured the common currency lower. The Euro had been boosted by a surprise downwards revision to last month’s unemployment data, which has showed that the rate of joblessness in the currency bloc had reached a nine-year low in December of 8.6% – a level not expected to be reached until this month.

Then the week ended badly for the Pound, which was hammered on Friday after Theresa May’s latest Brexit speech failed to impress traders.