The European Union and the UK are still very far from a trade agreement despite the fact that the mediator of the bloc's Brexit negotiations noted on Thursday that there is already progress in negotiations and only the latest details remain, according to the statement of a British official ...
An EU official said that they would not expect to reach an agreement with britain by the end of the week.
The person who spoke on condition of anonymity added that the differences overfishing have not yet been resolved and there are still many small issues that still need to be finalized.
The European Parliament separately told Reuters that the bloc's Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier told MPs earlier on Thursday that an agreement was still possible in the coming days, especially with regard to fishing.
But EU diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity said Barnier and his British counterpart, David Frost, were honing their fishing skills during the most secret so-called tunnel talks.
They said any agreement that might emerge would result in a "differentiated" system of catch quotas, but did not expect that to happen by Friday.
In parallel with these developments, the Bank of England on Thursday left its stimulus program unchanged, waiting for the results of negotiations on a trade agreement between the UK and the European Union and said that it would allow a temporary increase in inflation if the pound falls after Brexit without a trade agreement.
The Bank of England left its bond-buying program at 895 billion pounds ($ 1.2 trillion), having increased it by 150 billion pounds last month and kept the benchmark interest rate at a historic low of 0.1%.
London and Brussels are still trying to avoid the shock of import duties on trade from January 1.
The Bank of England has said it is prepared to accept that inflation will exceed its 2% target if a no-trade deal Brexit leads to a sharp fall in the pound.
"Compared to previous periods during which the outcome of a no-deal Brexit was possible, the economy began with a weaker position with more reserve capacity, which increased the Committee's patience for a temporary jump in inflation," the Bank of England said after the monetary policy meeting.
"It would be important to make sure that medium-term inflation expectations remain robust."
The Bank of England said that it plans to keep the pace of purchases of British government bonds generally unchanged in early 2021, but also confirmed that they can move faster if markets return to the chaos that was observed in March.
