New Zealand business confidence improved, GBPUSD rises as UK employment jumped to its pre-pandemic level

New Zealand released its ANZ Business Outlook in mid-September. Compared with the August release, the confidence index rose from -14.2 to -6.8. Although it is still in the negative region, the progress is in the right direction. The New Zealand government has started working on plans to ease lockdown restrictions as COVID cases keep declining. Last month, NZDUSD gained 1.10%. It has also been trading above the 71-level in September. If the economic condition keeps improving, NZD should continue the uptrend and obtain more strength. The next key data for NZD will be the Q2 GDP on Wednesday. Economists are expecting a 1.3% quarterly increase, compared with the 1.6% in Q1.

The UK added 241k jobs last month, according to the data just released today. With the increase, the total number of employees has exceeded the pre-pandemic level. The unemployment rate fell to 4.6%. GBPUSD rose after the data was released. Currently, it is trading at 1.3866, up about 0.2% since opening.