A mediocre Monday for Exchange rates

The Pound ended almost exactly where it started in yesterday’s European trading, with rates still around their best for 3 months for buying & sending Euro payments, and only a cent off the best this year against the US Dollar.

In fact the Pound started the day off on the front foot against the Euro, aided by weaker Eurozone manufacturing & services data, but fell back in the afternoon when consumer confidence in the single currency area came out better than expected. Against the Dollar, we saw rangebound trading in the absence of any significant data except US manufacturing which didn’t deliver any surprises; Dollar buyers should beware that there are rumours that the Federal Reserve may raise interest rates when it next meets in mid-June which would be likely to make the Greenback more expensive.

Stream of data due out today

The main announcement of note today for those of you with an interest in Sterling’s value will likely be the UK’s public sector borrowing figures for April, at 9.30am. Anything above a figure of £6.2bn is likely to send the Pound a little lower, and vice versa; but elsewhere we have a steady stream of minor data releases due out, throughout Europe in the morning and then the USA & New Zealand this afternoon and evening.

With little else of interest on the UK economic calendar until Thursday’s GDP figures, the EU referendum is likely to continue to drive exchange rate movements, particularly if there are any new opinion polls out. While many readers will agree that the endless game of Brexit Top Trumps, when it comes to the numbers being banded about by both camps, is reaching a farcical level, there’s no doubt that the likelihood of a Brexit is the single most important influencing factor for the Pound, and that’s unlikely to change as we are now in the final month of campaigning.

Whichever way you are voting, there may well be opportunities to secure your currency at preferential rates between now and June 23rd, and the sooner you speak to the friendly team at Currency Index, the more likely you are going to be able to take advantage, as well as protecting yourself from the worst case outcome for your own transactions.