EUR/GBP Rate & Comments for 13th August 2010

EUR/GBP - 1.217

It has been a mixed week for sterling which ended the week up against the euro and down against the US dollar as a fresh wave of risk aversion hit global markets. Sterling hit a new 6 month high of $1.5999/ £1 on Monday but then dropped to a 2 week low of $1.5565/£1 on Thursday. The reason for this sudden increase in risk aversion was as a result of Wednesday’s Bank of England quarterly inflation report. This was a key assessment of the new government’s spending cuts and tax hikes and as a result, growth forecasts were slashed and inflation is expected to be well within the target 2% level within 2 years. More importantly, the Bank left the door wide open for further emergency Quantitative Easing if it is needed. This left financial markets concerned over UK recovery. Poor housing data and lower consumer confidence added to sterling’s problems and the strength against the Euro was related to risk aversion caused by the US economy. Call in now to ensure you don’t lose out on further poor market movements

In the Euro zone, sterling has broken out of the tight range we have seen over the last 2 weeks against the euro after the US Federal Reserve voted to inject further money to jumpstart the flagging US recovery. This saw investors pull out of riskier euro assets and buy into the safer currencies of US dollar and sterling. As a result, the euro lost over 2% against the US dollar and 1% against sterling. Poor data from Greece and a drop in European industrial output on Thursday kept the euro under pressure. Out today, there is GDP data for the region so call in now to ensure that you don’t miss out.

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