Pound Sterling (GBP) has dropped by -0.1% against the Euro (GBP/EUR) and -0.5% against the US Dollar (GBP/USD) today, with the main reason being the repeat performances of UK political unrest and dissatisfaction.
Impositions, Interrogations and English Votes Dominate Today’s UK News
The UK econo-political machine has not exactly been on shining form today, which accounts in a large part for the dissatisfaction of investors today.
The headline-grabbing junior doctors strike has ended with the government imposing the new conditions on an opposed majority, the questioning of HMRC and Google leaders has provided no tangible results and the planned exclusivity of English voters only deciding on laws affecting England specifically has been labelled as ‘unstable’ by a number of MPs.
Earlier…
The Pound Sterling to Euro (GBP/EUR) and Pound Sterling to US Dollar (GBP/USD) exchange rates have both slumped today, while elsewhere the UK currency has made worryingly high losses against most of its peers. The Euro (EUR) and US Dollar (USD), meanwhile, have fared well overall.
GBP/EUR, GBP/USD Exchange Rate News: CBI UK Downgrade Adds to General Air of Pessimism Today
Pound Sterling (GBP) has made astonishing losses overall today, which have included -0.6% against the US Dollar (GBP/USD), -0.9% against the Euro (GBP/EUR) and the Swiss Franc (GBP/CHF) and -2.1% against the Japanese Yen (GBP/JPY).
As with Monday, the Pound has been let down by a simple lack of domestic data; the only UK economic publication at the time of writing was the RICS house price balance for January, which remained at 49% instead of rising to 52% as forecast.
One of the most detrimental news events for the UK today has been the announcement from the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) that in the wake of last year’s Autumn statement, the current economic conditions have forced the organisation to cut its growth forecasts for 2016 and 2017 by -0.3%, with the new predictions being 2.3% and 2.1% respectively.
Euro (EUR) and US Dollar (USD) Make Stable Gains Today
The Euro (EUR) has recorded gains of 0.3% against the US Dollar (EUR/USD) and 1.2% against Pound Sterling (EUR/GBP) today, in addition to recording higher rises of 1.6% against the Australian Dollar (EUR/AUD) and the New Zealand Dollar (EUR/NZD).
With no Eurozone-wide data coming out today, the only supportive releases so far for the single currency have been the Netherlands’ annual January inflation rate and December retail sales, which have respectively slipped from 0.7% to 0.6% and risen from -1.8% to 3.3%.
The US Dollar (USD) has moved in parallel to the Euro today, having made gains overall despite a few heavy losses. On the plus side have been advances of 0.7% against Pound Sterling (USD/GBP) and more than 1.1% against the New Zealand Dollar (USD/NZD) and the Australian Dollar (USD/AUD), while a notable loss has been a -1.8% slide against the Japanese Yen (USD/JPY).
Yesterday, the US Dollar was largely devalued by a caution-riddled delivery from Fed Chair Janet Yellen, although this damage was later repaired by the January monthly budget statement showing a substantial rise from -$17.5bn to $55.2bn.
GBP, EUR, USD Exchange Rate Forecast: Greek Unemployment, UK Auction and US Claims due Today
The near-future is fairly one-sided in terms of data releases, given that the US has the most high-impact data due out by far.
First up, however, will be the imminent Greek Unemployment Rate for November, which at the time of writing was forecast to fall minimally from 24.5% to 24.4%.
Following this will be the extremely low-impact UK 30-year Treasury Gilt Auction, while the start of the afternoon will bring some positively forecast US Claims statistics for the end of January and the beginning of February.
Current GBP, EUR, USD Exchange Rates
The Pound Sterling to Euro (GBP/EUR) exchange rate was trending in the region of 1.2732, the Euro to Pound Sterling (EUR/GBP) exchange rate was trending in the region of 0.7859, the Pound Sterling to US Dollar (GBP/USD) exchange rate was trending in the region of 1.4422, the US Dollar to Pound Sterling (USD/GBP) exchange rate was trending in the region of 0.7859, the Euro to US Dollar (EUR/USD) exchange rate was trending in the region of 1.1330 and the US Dollar to Euro (USD/EUR) exchange rate was trending in the region of 0.8830 today.