By Luke Dyson
Pound Sterling
The Pound has been very strong the past couple of weeks, with this currency performing very well against most major currencies specifically the euro and dollar.
We have seen a multiple cent gains for both and continued drive through key major resistance levels.
As a whole for the month to date GBP data has been very quiet, which for the time being has helped sterling maintain its strength. However in the weeks to come we could see some volatility off the back of these key releases.
On Tuesday the 13th wage and employment data will be released, although not a massive market mover can still have a significant impact if the figure is worse or better than expected. Then on the 21st of June we will see inflation figures, which have recently come down to 8.7% but are still drastically high and not on track for where the Bank of England expect this level to be.
Swiftly after this announcement we will then see an interest rate announcement by the BoE to target this inflation rate in an attempt to drastically reduce it.
It is expected a hike will be in order, hard to predict how much but it has been estimated they will continue to rise till the end of the year by around 100 basis points (1%).
GBP/EUR
For sterling euro as a pair, GBP has been performing extremely well and showing significant amounts of strength.
As of today we are at an 8 month high for buying euros, making this an amazing buying opportunity for any up-and-coming currency requirements. The market has free reign to make about 0.5 cents improvement before being struck with a significant resistance level, which also happens to be an 11 month high.
Moving forward, there is a lot of uncertainty for GBP/EUR in the next few weeks and the outcome of which way the market begins to progress will be heavily driven by the inflation data and interest rate announcement in the next couple of weeks.
Typically an interest rate hike will improve sterling strength however the last few hikes this has not been the case, as levels are already very high and this now is just putting the government and economy under further stress on debt repayments.
If you are thinking of buying euros in the next couple of weeks or months, consider taking advantage of these premium rates, these could be very short lived depending on the outcomes on the 21st June.
GBP/USD
We have seen GBP put in a serious amount of work against the dollar, with markets now trading just below a 12 month high, again down to GBP making traction across the board, but also the fact the US had a weak labour market data release, mainly down to jobless claims jumping to 261K from the predicted 235k.
Now the labour market in the US is perhaps responding to the impact of interest rate hikes and the drastic spike in inflation.
It’s very hard to predict if sterling will continue to make ground against the dollar and again will be significantly impacted by inflation figures and interest rate announcements in the UK the next couple of weeks.
If you have an up and coming currency requirement please get in touch with your currency consultant at A Place in the Sun Currency, while sterling is performing extremely well given the UK’s current financial circumstances.