The Pound Sterling to Euro (GBP/EUR) exchange rate has crashed today, as the Eurozone Consumer Confidence figure made clear progress towards posting a positive figure.
Euro Smashes Competition in Uptrend against the Odds
Faith in the Eurozone is truly strong today, as the Euro (EUR) has risen by over 1% against the Canadian Dollar (EUR/CAD), the Pound Sterling (EUR/GBP), the Indian Rupee (EUR/INR) and the US Dollar (EUR/USD), among others.
This positive performance is due in no small part to the Eurozone Consumer Confidence score for August improving from -7.1 points to -6.8. Although a small step, this is one in the right direction, and the potential for a properly unified Greek government in, at most, a month’s time has inspired a very healthy degree of confidence in the common currency as the European trading session comes to a close.
Earlier…
The Pound Sterling to Euro (GBP/EUR) exchange rate hit a new multi-week low of 1.3894 today as Greek news and mixed UK data had an impact on the pairing.
Mixed UK Debt Data sees Lacklustre Performance in GBP/EUR Pairing Today
The situation of Pound Sterling (GBP) has worsened today and the GBP/EUR exchange rate edged lower as the European session continued. Sterling has had a fairly flat performance elsewhere, although some major rises and falls bear mentioning. The Pound fell by -0.6% against the Swedish Krona (GBP/SEK) today but has risen by 0.5% against the Singapore Dollar (GBP/SGD) and by 0.8% against the Indian Rupee (GBP/INR).
The Pound’s middling results today come after several UK debt-based results came in, the most important being the UK Public Finances figure and the Public Sector Net Borrowing figure (both for July.) No predictions had been made for the former result, but in actuality it showed a -£3.029bn reduction compared to June’s £8.6bn increase. UK Borrowing also went down considerably by -£2.07bn, although this fell just short of the -£2.8bn predicted.
Euro (EUR) Exchange Rate Prediction: New Greek Election News causes Trouble in Athens
The Euro (EUR) has performed similarly to the Pound (GBP) today, trending narrowly against Sterling (EUR/GBP) and most other rivals. Exceptions outside this trend include a rise of 0.4% against the Australian Dollar (EUR/AUD), a 0.7% advance against the Indian Rupee (EUR/INR) and a loss of -0.2% against the Japanese Yen (EUR/JPY).
The Euro has been supported and harmed equally this morning; the Eurozone and German PMIs for August printed above forecasts, but the news of a second Greek election this year (around 7 months after the first one) has caused doubts to surface over Greece’s political future. The country is currently without a Prime Minister after Alexis Tsipras resigned yesterday under the requirements of Greek law when an election is impending. If the New Democracy party and the just-formed Popular Unity party are able to reach an agreement, their coalition will take over the Greek parliament, although as Popular Unity is formed from former members of Tsipras’ Syriza party, this union does not seem likely. If no agreement can be reached in three days, the next leaders of Greece will be decided in a public vote; speculation has placed the date on September 20th.
Hopes that this turn of events will result in the removal of the most vehemently anti-austerity members of parliament and therefore pave the way for a more stable Greek future lent the Euro support.
Pound May make Decisive Move in GBP/EUR Pairing if Eurozone Confidence is Down
The Pound Sterling (GBP) has the potential to gain later today if the Eurozone Consumer Confidence figure shows a major decline, although any signs of solidity in the turbulent Greek government are likely to induce some degree of optimism in the common currency (EUR).
Current GBP, EUR Exchange Rates
The Pound Sterling to Euro (GBP/EUR) exchange rate was trending in the region of 1.3935 and the Euro to Pound Sterling (EUR/GBP) exchange rate was trending in the region of 0.7176 today.