The Euro fell to its lowest levels against the Dollar in 20 years, while the Pound fell to its lowest level since March 2020 as investors anticipated a negative hit to regional economic growth as a result of wholesale gas price rises. Gazprom, Russia’s largest natural gas producer, had pre-announced a three day maintenance shutdown to the Nordstream 1 pipeline for the end of August, but it announced Friday the shutdown would now be indefinite.

The Euro to Dollar exchange rate pierced 0.99 to test a low of 0.9878 before returning to 0.9913 at the time of writing. This takes euro payment exchange rates to around 0.9637 at major high street banks. Meanwhile, the Pound to Dollar exchange rate sunk to a low of 1.1442 before returning to 1.1475 at the time of writing.