A defiant Sir Keir Starmer vowed yesterday to “never walk away from the country I love” after a damaging political crisis that has wiped more than 1% off the pound to euro rate since this time last week.
As the fallout from the Peter Mandelson affair rumbled on, the prime minister was able to get several high-profile cabinet members to come out in support of him. That took the temperature down slightly, calming the excitable bond market and limiting the pound’s losses.
But don’t expect this turmoil to die down anytime soon. In fact, with just a few months until the May local elections, the government may find speculation about its future only increases. Your pound to euro rate could easily weaken further between now and completion, so please do consider locking in today’s rate. It really is the best way to both protect your money and get peace of mind. You can take care of things today with a quick call to our expert team on 020 8003 4915.
Focus shifts from politics to economics in the second half of this week. The initial quarterly estimate for Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the UK arrives first thing tomorrow and is likely to dictate how the pound performs now events in Westminster have simmered down a little.
The head of UK supermarket giant Tesco warned the country was sleepwalking into a jobless ‘epidemic’. With the headline unemployment rate camped at 5.1%, CEO Ashwin Prasad called for businesses and the government to work together to arrest the slide.
The big story yesterday in currency markets was an unexpectedly poor showing by the American retail sector. Sales were unchanged from the month prior in December (missing forecasts of a 0.4% increase), with the Christmas buying period resulting in increased spending on gift items like sport equipment and musical instruments, but a sharp decline on furniture and white goods purchases.
