It felt like some chickens were coming home to roost yesterday as the pound fell, fell again and then fell some more. The immediate reason was the finding from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBS) that the Chancellor will need to find another £20bn to make up for falling UK productivity and stay within fiscal rules in the Budget, now four weeks away today.
Sterling hit its lowest against the euro since April 2023 and against the US dollar since August. Currency movements elsewhere were minimal, despite there continuing to be high level data being released, and just ahead of some vital interest rate decisions in the USA and Canada today, Japan and Europe tomorrow.
In Germany the GfK Consumer Confidence Index worsened to -24.1, its lowest reading since April, but just a day after the Ifo Business Climate repeated the PMI reading in showing German business in a bullish mood. New cars were certainly selling well in Europe, a 10% year-on-year increase throughout the bloc but driven by Europe’s current star economy, Spain. We’ll hear shortly if Spain’s economic heroics continue with Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for Q3.
Also in transport news, Wizz Air is to begin trialling business class-style tickets, by letting passengers book an empty seat next to them. The company, which currently ranks lowest among UK operators for customer service according to Which?, also mentioned that it was using AI to calculate fuel consumption better, which isn’t worrying at all.
In business news, The FTSE 100 hit a new high for the fourth day in a row, while Microsoft and Apple joined Nvidia in seeing their value hit $4trn.
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