Wednesday 22nd July 2015
Yesterday was not a good one for Sterling/Euro rates, with levels sliding all day from €1.44 to €1.42. The reason for the drop was renewed confidence about Greece, and in particular credit rating agencies increasing Greece’s rating as they felt there is now much less chance of them leaving the Eurozone.
This morning, Sterling has fought back slightly after the release of the Bank of England (BoE) minutes from this morning’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting. The full minutes can be read here.
The key phrase I noticed was “the decision between holding Bank Rate at its current level versus a small increase was becoming more finely balanced”. This means that despite all 9 members voting to keep the interest rate at the record low of 0.5%, it shows that they are going to start leaning towards finally raising rates towards the end of this year. The next meeting is in 6 weeks’ time, and we may start to see some of the members voting for a hike in rates.
This has given Sterling a boost, as the rumour of an interest rate rise usually does. The same effect has been seen on the US Dollar this week.
View live currency graphs here
Today’s Data
All eyes were on the Bank of England and the inflation report this morning, and at 10am there is a parliamentary inflation report. For the remainder of today, the only data of note is an Interest Rate decision and policy statement by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand. Their inflation is very low at the moment, and the NZD is very weak due to the low commodity prices (See my post about commodity currencies to learn more). I think there is a chance they will cut interest rates to try and boost the economy. If they do, then expect GBP/NZD rates to go higher.
Getting the best exchange rates
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Labels: Best Euro rates, BoE, Currency, Euro, GBP/EUR, Interest Rates, MPC, Sterling, When to Buy Euros