Sterling stays near 6 month highs

With GBP/EUR now beginning its third week in its one cent range bound market it is clear sterling’s strength has hit a brick wall. with the election taking place on the 12th Dec it seems like sterling is trying to hold out before picking a direction to pursue off the back the election results. However this has left the door open for Eco stats to creep back in and take control of the rates and be a real driving force in the market for the time being.

We saw just under a cent drop in GBP/EUR Thursday as a result of two of the nine (Saunders & Haskel)  Bank of England policy makers voting to have an urgent interest rate cut. Although there has been no change in interest rates following the vote it was the surprise that a rate cut had been voted which caused the market to fall. However the sudden drop was short lived with sterling recovering and moving towards the high end of its range by close Friday.

For the week ahead we have a very busy couple of days for sterling eco stats, For Monday we have UK GDP at 09:30 , Tuesday UK Claimant count change at 10:30, Wednesday GBP consumer price index at 10:30 then to end with GBP retail sales on Thursday at 10:30.

Although Sterling euro hasn’t moved significantly in the last few weeks please take this time to reconsider and use the rare second chance the market has given in this uncertain time. GBP/EUR is still holding around the 6 month high and so is still an excellent buying opportunity ahead of the election. If you have a pending currency requirement get in touch with your account manager to discuss how you can take advantage of the rates in there current state.