Pound Stable Despite Uncertainty

Two weeks is a long time in financial markets – all the uncertainty around Article 50 and Brexit has yet to have any negative impact on the Pound – in fact, we have seen the opposite.

Rates for sending Euro payments have in fact improved since Tim Barrow delivered the Government’s letter to Donald Tusk, although only by around a cent, and it may now be some time until we have further news on the progress of negotiations to provide any movement for the currency pair. One reason for the slightly weaker Euro is that central banks have been selling Euros, with worries about long-term growth and interest rates in the single currency bloc, and betting instead on long-term prosperity for the Pound. If the Grand National is an unpredictable bet, currency markets at the moment are not much easier to read. The first round of the French presidential election on April 23rd is another unpredictable event coming up for the single currency.

The Pound has also been helped by reports over the weekend that only a small number of banking jobs are likely to move from the City to Europe, and some early-win investments by car giants Nissan & Toyota, as well as reassurances from Ford that it would retain a UK business for the foreseeable future.

Across the pond in the USA, the Dollar has become more expensive again, despite Friday’s poor non-farm payrolls figure. With interest rates on the up in the USA, perhaps the Dollar is seen as a sound investment, despite its high price and the intervention in Syria by President Trump last week.

Short week ahead

This week, of course, we only have four working days before the Easter long weekend. As such it is a busy one for data releases, with important UK inflation figures tomorrow & unemployment numbers on Wednesday, and various other data around the world through the week. Good Friday is not a bank holiday in the USA and exchange rates can still move over the long weekend, so consider your options this week if you are thinking of securing an exchange rate for your transaction.

Today is a very quiet one on the economic calendar, so a good day to take stock of recent events and to make sure you don’t leave your exchange rate to chance in the coming weeks.