Autumn statement effect on exchange rates

Wednesday 5th December 2012 
Good afternoon. The market has now stabilised after the Autumn statement by the chancellor. In this afternoons post I’m going to have a quick look at the effect of the statement, and also what is coming up in the next few days that could affect exchange rates. 

Effect of Autumn budget statement on exchange rates 

This is an easy one to sum up; there was little to no reaction at all! Sterling had been falling in the run up to the announcements anyway, and this morning was at a 1 month low against the Euro. As is often the case, the currency markets move more on rumour than actual fact, and the Pound was already vulnerable as investors braced for grim tidings from the UK's finance minister in his half-yearly budget statement. This is how GBP/EUR has moved today:


The market has already been anticipating a difficult Autumn Statement and this was for the most part already priced in to rates. Earlier this morning, the pound barely reacted to a survey showing Britain's service sector grew at its slowest pace in almost 2 years. The PMI number was below forecasts, but still just above the magic 50 level, which signals growth, which is probably the reason we saw hardly any movement. 

You can see in the chart above the market was already at its lowest before the speech, and the Pound/Euro rate actually recovered by around 0.3% just before Mr Osborne starting speaking. During the speech we saw basically no movement at all, as there were no surprise announcements. 

You can read a quick guide here as to what the statement contained from the BBC. The only real thing of interest was the scrapping of a planned 3p rise in fuel duty. Also of interest to the currency markets were the growth forecasts which are now predicted to be -0.1% in 2012, down from 0.8% predicted in the Budget. Forecasts for next few years are: 1.2% in 2013, 2% in 2014, 2.3% 2015, 2.7% in 2016 and 2.8% in 2017.

Quantitative Easing announcement tomorrow

Lowered growth forecasts could open the way to more quantitative easing by the Bank of England QE is generally perceived as negative for a currency. But if the fiscal austerity programme is relaxed too much that could also be negative as it would bring the UK's triple-A rating into question. 

The next announcement on QE is tomorrow lunchtime, when the Bank of England will announce whether or not they will increase the measures. We will also see the Bank of England and European Central Bank announce their latest decisions on interest rates. 

I don’t’ expect any surprises on either QE or interest rates. In the run up to Christmas it’s highly unlikely that there will be any changes, but depending on how economic figures are in the next few weeks, we may see more QE in the early part of next year.


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