The Pound’s appeal was limited at the close of the previous week, owing to both lingering ‘Brexit’ unrest and a poor outcome for consumer confidence.
Expectations had already been low for the Gfk consumer confidence score for April, but the actual drop from 0 to -3 exceeded the worst predictions.
Other UK news included mortgage approvals falling in March but net consumer credit rising from 1.4bn to 1.9bn in the same month.
Pound Forecast: UK PMIs and Election Outcomes to Watch Out For
The coming week is set to bring the announcement of a number of UK PMIs, while Thursday will notably feature local elections.
In the former case, Tuesday will bring the manufacturing PMI for April, Wednesday the contrcutiosn variant and Thursday the services printing.
In addition to Thursday’s elections covering MPs seats, the position of London Mayor will also be up for grabs; the toppling of ‘Out’ campaigner Boris Johnson may inspire fresh confidence among ‘In’ supporters.
Euro (EUR) Exchange Rate Climbed on Eurozone GDP and Unemployment Rate Results
Although last week brought a diverse mix of supportive and detracting Eurozone data, yesterday essentially overruled the effects of previous exchange rate movements.
The most notable ecostats covered the Eurozone on the whole, with the morning seeing the announcement of Q1 GDP, inflation for April and unemployment in March.
Respectively, GDP reprinted positively on the year but rose on the month, inflation fell for the core and estimated fields and unemployment supportively fell from 10.4% to 10.2% against forecasts of a 10.3% outcome.
GBP/EUR Forecast: Retail Sales and PMI Results due from Eurozone This Week
The coming week will be flooded with Eurozone ecostats, although those most likely to be impactful are located at the front end of the week.
These will include manufacturing, services and composite PMIs, as well as retail sales results that are spread over Wednesday.
Additionally, Wednesday will see the announcement of the Eurozone composite and services PMIs for April, as well as a Non-Monetary Policy meeting from the European Central Bank (ECB).
Eurozone Growth could be False Hope, According to ING Bank Economist
While the Euro was certainly boosted last week by the Eurozone-wide GDP results, it could be set for a rude awakening from the current optimistic state in the future.
Speaking after the GDP results were released on Friday, ING Bank Senior Eurozone Economist Bert Colijn stated that:
Domestic strength in the Eurozone economy is key to current economic growth. This is mostly because of improvements in the job market. In March, unemployment declined by more than 200,000 people in the Eurozone. Although this release is certainly encouraging, it remains to be seen whether this figure is not subject to substantial revision’.