Markets are nervous of UK fiscal woes: While the public finances of many developed nations are currently somewhat dubious at best, this is particularly true for the United Kingdom, with a multibillion-pound hole that needs to be addressed by the upcoming budget in November.

While developments concerning the budget continue to do the media rounds, which will inevitably only increase as November 26th approaches, Rachel Reeves is stuck between a rock and a hard place, between honoring campaign pledges not to raise taxes on working people and VAT while simultaneously needing to find an estimated £30bn to balance spending with tax income.

To make matters worse, and coming at an inopportune time for the Chancellor of the Exchequer, an assessment to be released on Friday by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) is expected to substantially downgrade UK productivity forecasts, resulting in a further estimate of £20 billion in shortfall.

Not to mention: government borrowing also exceeded estimates in the first half of 2025 by £7.2bn as per last week’s OBR commentary.

Tying this back to GBP/USD, however, is remarkably simple: the fiscal health of the UK economy appears to be worsening, and investors are collectively demanding a higher level of risk premium to hold sterling-denominated assets.

This fundamental downgrade in sterling’s rating when compared to other stores of wealth is what has led, in no small part, to recent GBP/USD downside.