Quiet start to April for FX markets

April has seen a strangely quiet start for currency markets, without much data to go on so far. Most major currency pairs have remained in fairly small ranges, with the Pound falling back a little against the Euro yesterday, but gaining a little against the US Dollar. Yesterday we saw German unemployment come out better than expected, boosting the Euro, and US manufacturing worse than expected, explaining the weaker USD.

The Australian reserve bank also kept their interest rate at 2.5% as expected, keeping rates for sending Australian Dollars stable near the best rates seen for some years.

Things could be about to change however with Eurozone GDP released this morning at 10am, along with producer inflation for the single currency area – the European Central Bank may make a surprise interest rate cut tomorrow, so today’s Euro data can influence that decision and therefore the value of the Euro.

Also in Europe, leaders have signed off the next €8.3bn tranche of Greece’s bailout payment. The EU will be desperate to avoid a repeat of the sovereign debt crises and Greece is on course to exit recession this year – although unemployment there is still running at 27%.