Good Morning. The pound has been pretty steady so far this morning after slightly worse than expected retails sales but slightly "better" than expected UK borrowing figures. Rates @ 09:45am are as follows:
- GBP/EUR 1.1511
- GBP/USD 1.5432
- GBP/AUD 1.6597
- GBP/NZD 2.1617
- GBP/CAD 1.5383
- GBP/ZAR 11.444
- GBP/JPY 143.95
- GBP/CHF 1.6488
- EUR/USD 1.3409
"UK borrowing hits record level"
It was announced this morning that government borrowing has hit a record high of £163.4bn this year. This borrowing figure for the 2009-10 financial year is lower than the £167bn predicted by the Chancellor Alistair Darling in April's Budget but is still the most borrowed by the government in peacetime and could weigh heavily on the Pound once the election is out of the way, whatever the outcome.
UK retail sales rose 0.4% in March which was slightly less than the expected 0.6%. After this Sterling rose around 20 pips against the dollar, and remained just above 1.15 against the Euro. "There had been a whisper of much weaker numbers and the revisions to retail sales were better," a London-based sales trader said, which will hopefully keep the Pound at the highs we have seen this week, at least for today.
Hung Parliament - The media's phrase of the moment.
The second of three live election debates is on Sky News tonight at 8pm and a similar outcome at last week could knock Sterling from its recent highs as fears of a hung parliament weigh in the Pound. The latest Polls show the Conservatives have a slight lead over the Lib Dem's, with Labour 4 or 5 points behind, but with Nick Clegg under fire in the national press today, who knows what tomorrows Polls will show; especially when tonight's debate is expected to be more about policies than the last.
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