Pound remains stable as June begins

3 June, 2013

Robin Haynes

May was a quiet month for some major currencies, with rangebound trading – for example with the Pound to Euro rate only fluctuating by 2c throughout the month. We saw more volatility in some currencies, such as the South African Rand, where buying Rand is now around 12% cheaper than a month ago due to continued labour unrest and economic problems. Last week the Rand achieved its cheapest price against sterling since 2008.

There is also good news for anyone needing to send money to Australia (best rates for a year) and Canada (best since February).

This week sees a quiet start on the economic data front, with only US manufacturing data of note, but as we are in the first week of the month, the Bank of England and European Central Bank will both be announcing interest rate decisions on Thursday, with QE also announced in the UK. This is the last monthly meeting before new Governor Mark Carney takes over on July 1st. Will Mervyn King bow out by leaving strong options in place for more QE, thereby weakening the Pound?

Eurozone GDP is also released on Wednesday, and there is important data through the week for may economies, so whichever currency you are buying or selling, keep in touch with your account manager at Currency Index.

Later this month also sees a German court challenge the ECB’s recent bond-buying programme, which could throw sovereign debt problems back into the limelight – Mario Draghi, the head of the ECB, will be a staunch defender of the process which helped Spain and Italy avoid further bailouts, but the Euro could suffer if more infighting breaks out across the Eurozone’s major institutions.