The pound opened today at a five-week low against the euro after shedding a cent and a half of value across the course of last week’s action.
In other words, a €300,000 property on the continent became £3000 more expensive in the blink of an eye. And this is far from a one-off occurrence. The GBP/EUR exchange rate routinely moves by several percentage points, particularly during periods of volatility such as the one we all have the good fortune of living through.
A forward contract protects your budget by locking in today’s rate and ensuring you don’t have to watch your buying power fall when the next payment comes due. This peace of mind can make all the difference when it comes to your budget. Just call 020 8003 4915 to get a free consultation from our account management team.
In case you missed it, the Labour party’s first spending review in more than a decade provided billions of pounds in funding for the NHS and infrastructure projects. Good news for anyone with recent experience trying to book a GP appointment, but that boost had to be paid for (at least in part) but real-term spending cuts to other key departments.
For the time being, currency markets will be nervously casting their eye towards the Middle East. Hostilities between Israel and Iran ratcheted up over the weekend, and in a sign of how jittery that’s making investors, safe-haven assets like the US dollar, gold and crude oil all surged.
Central bankers in the UK, the USA and Japan will all announce their latest interest rate decisions this week. All three are expected to keep their respective headline rates at their current levels, but economists have famously been wrong before.
The latest UK consumer price inflation (CPI) numbers – usually a crucial yardstick for the Bank of England – are set to be published on Wednesday. After a huge leap last month, inflation is thought to have stayed stubbornly high at around the 3.5% mark in May.
