Last week ended with a flurry of excitement on the currency markets. The headline was that against the euro the pound hit its highest rate since May 2019. While that was true, when you look at the graph further back beyond last spring – and the chaos around the 29 March extension – you can see that the rate we hit on Friday is actually one of the highest since the wheels fell off Theresa May’s government in the 2017 election. We are now at one of the highest rates for two and a half years.
There was such a desire in large parts of the population to “get it done”, as the Prime Minister keeps saying, that the risks of the deal collapsing this week were underplayed and we can expect a severe reality check this week.
Even if a deal is agreed, remember that the Conservative government currently has only 288 MPs plus 10 potential DUP supporters, well below the 322 needed for a majority. It’s hard to see how they can get it passed, even with people like Rory Stewart who has been persuasive in saying that everyone needs to compromise – no-one will get everything they want.
It could easily all collapse this week. Speaking of compromising and getting on with it, for anyone with plans to buy abroad, today’s GBP/EUR and GBP/USD rate looks like an extremely good deal. You can lock it in with a Forward Contract for the tumultuous year ahead, and move ahead with your own plans.
While I’m here, at Smart we are very proud of our service. It can be hard to “prove” how good your service is to someone who hasn’t experienced it yet, but surely the opinion of others is a good gauge. Which is why we are so proud of our number one and two rankings on Trustpilot for currency exchange and money transfer services. We have well over 1,000 five-star reviews from clients, but we’ve taken a few and put them into a booklet. You can have a read here, with Smart’s Little Book of Reviews.
And if you’re ready to chat through your currency strategy, please call your trader on 020 7898 0541.
