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By Jonathan Watson

The global recovery is still incredibly weak. There are more and more signs of weakness everyday.

The Irish Republic has today had it’s credit rating downgraded by Standard & Poor’s. S & P have also predicted that net Irish government debt will rise to 120% for 2011. This does not bode well for the economic outlook for the euro. Greece is currently suffering from negative growth and all the signs point to the prospect of the world re entering recession!

The eurozone countries are major consumers of US goods and services and if they are not spending the US suffers. The US as the largest economy is suffering too with high unemployment and weak housing figures in the form of new home sales. Historically the housing market has driven the US out of recession but with such bad news this week can it really be relied on to do this again?

To keep ahead of current market trends that will affect the value of sending money overseas, speak to one of the experienced currency dealers that write on this blog by filling in the contact form. We specialise in overseas electronic bank to bank transfers and can save you money.

By Alex Ellis

Sterling has experienced losses this morning as Martin Weale, the newest member of the MPC announced that he thought the BoE growth forecast for the UK economy could be optimistic. The threat of a lowered growth has therefore caused sterling to lose ground against the majority of major currencies, this has equated to a one month low against the dollar and rates lower against the Euro than what was seen yesterday.

German GDP data was released early this morning and this has shown significant increases and positive growth. This has only helped to further weaken sterling and therefore make any GBP currency exchange most costly.

To fiud out what releases are due towards the latter part of this week and what affect these may have on any currency exchange, use Currency Line to contact an experienced currency broker.

By Alex Ellis

Sterling has rallied this morning following a number of positive data releases; retail sales were shown to have increased and public sector net borrowing was shown to have decreased. This was seen as positive for the UK economy and a further sign that the UK is beginning the long winded path to recovery. If you are in the position to conduct a currency exchange involving selling sterling then at presents rates are hovering near to the recent 18month high against the Euro.

By Alex Ellis

Today sees the Bank of England release the minutes from the most recent meeting they held; during this it was decided that interest rates would be kept on hold at 0.5% for the 8th consecutive month. One member Andrew Sentance has votyed for an interest rate hike for the last 2 months and it will be interesting to see if any of his colleagues share his opinion.

When it was first announced in June that Sentance was in favour of a hike we saw sterling strengthen massively against the Euro as it was the first sign of stability in the UK economy. If we were to see one of the other members of the MPC agree with Sentance then we should see rates strengthen in sterling’s favour. Of course if the opposite were to be true then we may see some sterling weakness and this could be across the board. The release is at 09:30 this morning so use Currency Line to find out what impact this may have had on your currency purchase.

By Jonathan Watson

Inflation figures for the UK fell from 3.2% to 3.1%, reflecting the global slowdown. Japanese GDP has this week fallen and the US has been suffering from reduced output.

The UK inflation figures however are not a particularly sharp fall, and it is possible that June’s figures were high due to the World Cup boosting retail sales.

The pound remains strong I believe due to other currencies suffering from global slowdown fears. The US had been a safe haven currency but there has been a large sell off following real fears of the US re entering recession. The cable breeching 1.60 has strengthened back to the 1.56 mark, the currency  ironically probably benefiting from a flight to safety.

The euro had been trading very strongly following positive stress test results, but we have seen these gains eradicated  now the novelty of the tests have worn off and focus has returned to the fiscal woes of the eurozone countries.

I would expect the pound to remain strong for the medium term as the euro remains a risk and the dollars recovery is fragile.

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