Sterling has edged slightly over the €1.19 barrier this morning, while slipping by around 0.25% off the five-week high it achieved against the US dollar yesterday.
Overall, however, while the UK’s financial institutions have been enjoying four days off work (up to yesterday), the pound has strengthened against every major currency over the past week, by between 0.3% and 1.3%, including by 0.57% and 0.58% against the euro and US dollar respectively.
Underpinning the strength of sterling over the past nine months has been vaccinations, an incredible turnaround in the success of the UK versus Covid-19 compared to the disasters of 2020 and early 2021.
The last data release of the year – house prices from the Nationwide Building Society – shows residential property prices rising at 1% in December, well ahead of the expected 0.7% and adding up to 10.4% this year. That’s the fastest rate since 2006.
The data releases start again somewhat sluggishly from Tuesday and Thursday next week, with final readings for PMI.
