Inflation figures due out today

Today’s main economic news release is the UK’s consumer inflation measure, due at 9.30am. August’s inflation is expected to come in at 2.1%, close to the Bank of England’s target rate of 2.0%, which would be a further move towards economic stability, since inflation has been running above target for much of the recent past. Sterling, which has been on the front foot for the last couple of weeks, could be buoyed by the figures, assuming there are no nasty surprises. As tomorrow’s Bank of England minutes are unlikely to contain many surprises under Mark Carney’s transparent guidance, this is the main UK data until retail sales are announced on Thursday.

The rest of the world is dominated by the tragic events in Washington and ongoing situation in Syria, which may have both contributed to the weaker USD. sending money to the USA is now at its cheapest level since January and of course the same can be said for pegged currencies such as the UAE Dirham.

In the Eurozone, there are fresh fears that Portugal’s debt could soon be in the headlines again, with representatives from the IMF, the ECB and the European Commission beginning an audit of the country’s health as part of its bailout terms. The visit will determine whether Portugal will receive its next vital tranche of bailout funds, and while the European authorities will not want the sovereign debt crisis to reappear, the cheaper Euro could be a result of some of these concerns.

Overall there are plenty of reasons why many worldwide currencies are trading at cheaper levels against the Pound, and history has proved that things can change very quickly, so at CIHQ we think that those of our clients fixing rates now for their upcoming currency requirements are making a sound decision. As a new report shows that consumers could save up to £600 per year by switching their current accounts from one bank to another, don’t forget that many of Currency Index’s clients save more than that in one transaction by switching from their high street bank to our service to buy and send their currency overseas!