The Euro has achieved its longest winning streak in nearly a decade after gaining for a sixth straight month against the US Dollar and hitting new highs against the Pound and Japanese Yen.
Belief that the Eurozone crisis is nearing an end has spurred on investor confidence that the worst of the crisis is now over adding to the currency’s strengthening. On Friday the Euro was boosted further by the release of better-than expected manufacturing PMI figures.
The PMI increased to 47.9 in January, up from the 46.1 recorded in December. Economists had been predicting a rise of 47.5.
“While the industrial sector looks likely to have acted as a drag on the Euro zone economy in the final quarter of last year, deepening the double-dip downturn, the PMI provides hope that the first quarter could mark the start of a turnaround,” said Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit.
“Providing there are no further setbacks to the region’s debt crisis, these data add to the expectation that the euro zone is on course to return to growth by mid-2013.”
The region also received a boost from the better-than-expected German unemployment figures for January with the data showing that the number of people out of work in the Eurozone’s biggest economy fell to 2.92 million.
The Euros 14-month high against the US Dollar is the currency’s highest level since November 2011. So far this year the Euro has proven to be the best performing currency, gaining by as much as 2.9% in value.
As of 10:10 pm
The Pound to Euro exchange rate is currently trading at 1.1564
The Pound to US Dollar exchange rate is currently trading at 1.5811
The Pound to Australian Dollar exchange rate is currently trading at 1.5243
The Euro to US Dollar exchange rate is currently trading at 1.3669
The Euro to Pound exchange rate is currently trading at 0.8644
