By Matthew Vassallo
The Pound has continued to find plenty of support around its current levels against both the EUR and USD, making modest gains earlier in the week before another spike during Thursday afternoon’s trading.
Thursday was a key date for investors this week, who were likely looking towards the Bank of England’s (BoE) interest rate decision and subsequent minutes, alongside the UK governments travel restrictions update, as a gauge to whether a further upturn for GBP was likely before the end of the trading week. What is of perhaps of more importance to those clients holding GBP is whether any prospective upturn would be sufficient to help propel Sterling through the current resistance levels against both the EUR & USD.
Both the single currency and greenback have managed to curb any heavy losses against GBP this week and despite a positive reaction by investors to the UK Governments update to travel restrictions, a modest tone from the BoE has kept any positive sentiment in check.
BoE members voted unanimously to keep interest rates on hold at 0.1%, although one member did vote in favour of cutting its current £895bn bond-buying Quantitative Easing (QE) scheme, citing concerns over the sharp rise in UK inflation figures. Inflation is predicted to peak at 4% by the end of 2021, as UK spending continues to rise as more people are vaccinated and confidence continues to grow. This was countered by claims that inflation would fall back to the governments 2% target in the medium term, although investors are likely to proceed with caution as the vaccination programme and UK economy evolves over the coming months.
There was good news yesterday for those clients looking to travel to both France and Spain in the hope of picking up their search for foreign property investment. The UK government’s review and subsequent update on travel restrictions confirming that both countries, whilst remaining on the amber list, would no longer require those who are fully vaccinated to self-isolate for 10 days upon their return subject to a PCR negative test result.