Euro rate plummet continues

Yesterday morning saw key Markit Services and manufacturing data from the Eurozone, including France and Germany, come in largely on the positive side. Due to fragility of the Pound and the Euro seemingly in its pomp, any positive news from Europe lends to a significant strengthening of the Euro, with the Euro rate plummet continuing. This is causing those of you with a budget in Euros, for a holiday or overseas property, to spend more of your Pounds to buy the same amount of overseas currency. The morning’s data then did cause GBP-EUR to drop further, by about half a cent, and we are now seeing nearly an 8-year low. With nothing at all on the horizon indicating a big change for the better, if you do need to spend a large outlay on any international payments it is worth giving some serious thought into locking in the current rates on offer, for up to 2 years ahead, to ensure your cost doesn’t spiral out of control.

 

Later

Throughout the afternoon, various data from the US was released including services, manufacturing, housing and oil, with mixed results, causing GBP-USD to stay relatively stable but GBP-EUR dropped a little further as the day progressed, by about another quarter-cent.

 

Today

A huge amount of data from the UK, first thing this morning, covering everything from GDP, loans, Govt. spending, services and business investment. The most important of these being the GDP figures which is forecast to come in at 1.7%, the same figure as previously. Should the actual published number be less than this, one would expect the Euro rate to drop yet further. This could be tempered by the US stats later in the afternoon with jobs figures, house sales and natural gas stock all to be disclosed. Generally, a positive US figure will cause GBP-USD to become more expensive, but GBP-EUR should become cheaper as EUR-USD interactions are similar to that of a see-saw; when one goes up the other will go down.

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