All quiet on the western front

With little in the way of news from the Brexit saga, yesterday saw a huge amount of eco stats published and with them a decline and rise in the strength of the pound against the other major currencies.

Before 9 am yesterday we saw a number of Markit manufacturing and unemployment figures from a number of European countries coming in below expectation with seemingly little effect. It was, however, the UK stats that would do the damage, showing how much more fragile the pound is when compared to the more resilient euro and US dollar.

The UK’s market manufacturing, consumer credit and mortgage data all came in with negative figures and the pound reacted accordingly and dropped in value by half a cent against the single currency and the greenback. This weakening was confounded by the positive unemployment rate numbers from Europe showing that fewer people are unemployed since the last set of figures were released a month earlier.

The pound did gradually recover, against the euro at least, and by the afternoon was back to square one as the data from the US helped sterling’s cause for those looking to buy in Europe – Markit and ISM manufacturing figures were quite a bit above the expected. The effect was a great example of the “see-saw effect” with the US and eurozone at opposite ends with the UK in the middle – typically when one end strengthens the other weakens.

With eco stats and data being the other mover of exchange rates on a very regular basis, aside from Brexit, it is certainly worth staying in touch with your currency consultant here to get the most for your money using one of our many different payment and transfer options that we provide.