Cyprus and Greece to receive bailout funds

Later on today, finance ministers meet in Brussels to agree the latest tranches of bailout funds for Cyprus and Greece. The countries will receive €3bn and €7.5bn respectively, as part of deals agreed with the ‘troika’ of international lenders to prop up their ailing banking sectors. Meanwhile, Slovenia has become the latest country to appear on the radar as potentially needing a bailout of its banking system.

While Cyprus and Greece are problems long ago priced in to the market, their appearance in headlines can’t have done any harm in keeping the Euro relatively weak, and still 2-3% cheaper than before the Cyprus news broke earlier this year.

Last week we had relatively little data out to bring movements for exchange rates, but this week is a different prospect, with a week packed with important news releases around the world. Today we start with retail sales in the USA, New Zealand and Switzerland, before later in the week sees various inflation, unemployment, and GDP figures out around the world. These are all likely to have an influence on exchange rates, so keep in touch with us at Currency Index if you want to make the most of any movements in your favour, or guard against any negative movement. Wednesday is the most important day for the Pound, with unemployment numbers as well as the quarterly Bank of England report published – this is a key indicator of monetary policy as well as growth forecasts and can weigh heavily on the Pound. With new Bank of England Governor Carney due to take office in July, this week is Mervyn King’s last quarterly report.

The Dollar also rallied on Friday, as Fed chairman Ben Bernanke suggested that the US central bank would slow its stimulus program, which brought rates for buying US Dollars down by nearly 2c on Friday.