Thursday 22nd September 2011
Good morning. Sterling fell to a new 8 month low against the US Dollar, fell below the €1.14 level vs the Euro and hit a 2 and a half year low versus the yen yesterday. This was after Bank of England minutes showed an increasing chance the central bank will soon opt for more monetary easing, as we predicted in yesterdays post. At 08:30am this morning rates are as follows:
• GBP/EUR 1.1416
• GBP/USD 1.5465
• GBP/AUD 1.5485
• GBP/NZD 1.9479
• GBP/CHF 1.4019
• GBP/CAD 1.5700
• GBP/ZAR 12.586
• GBP/JPY 118.33
• GBP/DKK 8.4977
• GBP/NOK 8.9457
• EUR/USD 1.3548
Sterling falls on Bank of England (BoE) minutes
Yesterday the BoE released the minutes to the recent decision to hold interest rates, and hold off on further Quantitative Easing. Adam Posen voted for an extra 50 billion pounds in asset purchases but the minutes showed most members felt it was increasingly likely more asset purchases would be warranted at some point. As a result, Sterling fell across the board during trading yesterday.
Some members also felt the recent weakness in the economy was sufficient to justify more quantitative easing "at a subsequent meeting", raising the prospect that the BoE could start pumping money into the economy in October.
QE is widely seen to be negative for the pound as it would flood the market with the UK currency, cutting demand while increasing the BoE's balance sheet. For this reason Sterling has dropped significantly against other currencies.
If you are selling currency for Sterling, it's looking very good at the moment. With the Pound so weak it's a good time to convert currency back into Pounds. However if the Euro debt crisis continues to cause worries, rates could start to recover.
If you have currency to convert to Sterling, contact me today to discuss the options we have available to help you achieve the best exchange rates possible.
Today's Data
Canadian Retail Sales are released at lunchtime, followed by Jobless numbers from the USA. There are no releases from the EU or UK today.
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Labels: BoE Minutes, Quantitative Easing, Sterling falls