This week’s currency news 138

This week, focus in the UK is likely to be on Wednesday’s Bank of England minutes, which will reveal to what extent the MPC considered extending the UK’s Quantitative Easing programme this month. Any likelihood of further QE could hurt the pound.

Also on Wednesday, the government publishes its key spending review, with details of the billions of pounds of cuts planned in the forthcoming spending round. Markets are concerned whether there will be an impact on the economy, and therefore we feel Wednesday could be a doubly hard day for sterling.

Don’t forget, if you are worried about a falling pound, that you can fix exchange rates up to 2 years ahead using a Forward Contract from Currency Index.

This week’s economic calendar is as follows:

Monday 18th
1415 – US industrial production

Tuesday 19th
1000 – Eurozone construction output & ZEW economic sentiment survey
1330 – US housing starts
1400 – Canadian interest rate decision

Wednesday 20th
0930 – Bank of England minutes & UK public borrowing

Thursday 21st
0715 – Swiss trade balance
0830 – Eurozone manufacturing inflation
0930 – UK mortgage approvals & retail sales
1500 – Eurozone consumer confidence

Friday 22nd
All day – G20 meeting
1200 – Canadian CPI inflation
1330 – Canadian retail sales