Sterling’s positive start to the week continued yesterday as the pound regained more of last week’s losses against the dollar.
The picture against the euro was less decisive yesterday but has accelerated away this morning, reaching its highest level since early April and close to its highest level since before the pandemic.
The Bank of England will announce its interest rate decision tomorrow, based on how rapidly the economy is recovering from the pandemic and lock downs. Doubts over the speed of the recovery as the Delta variant takes hold are thought unlikely to cause rates or quantitative easing levels to change. However, analysts have been trying to guess which central bank will move first in raising interest rates – with many believing that the UK will raise rates in summer 2022, a year or two ahead of the European Central Bank.
Tomorrow we should also hear whether new countries will be added to the green list for travel, with Croatia, Italy and Spain’s islands most likely to be on the list for quarantine-free travel (at least on your return).
A report from Credit Suisse has found that more than five million people have become millionaires during the pandemic – another 10% – as stock markets have recovered and global house prices soared.
A new £50 note is released by the Bank of England today, with the World War 2 codebreaker Alan Turing on its face.
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