By Alex Ellis

Sterling has stumbled early morning even following better than expected UK retail sales figures for January; these figures were 2.3% better than they were the previous year. Although you would normally expect this to cause strength for the currency we have actually seen GBP exchange rates suffer since the market opened. This shows just how fragile the pound remains at present and how data which you would normally expect to show strength has now become unpredictable.

Sterling has gained over 3% in the last 2 weeks and this is still a good time to change sterling into euros. To put it into perspective on a £200,000 transfer this movement makes a difference of €7,560 and this continues to highlight the importance of following exchange rates. The easiest way to do this is to employ the services of a currency broker who can help to guide you through the process and outline any upcoming data which may impact the value of your exchange.

Later on today at 11:00 we have German Industrial Production figures due and these are expected to show an increase to 0.2% from last month’s contraction of 0.7%. This economic release is seen as a key indicator of strength in the manufacturing sector and therefore considered quite important to show the overall health of an economy.

On Thursday at 05:00 we have the GDP estimate for the UK and this is definitely one of the releases to watch out for as recent GDP figures were so weak they caused sterling to lose around 4% against the Euro; this equates to a difference of around £8000 if you were selling €200,000. At 11:00 we have the ECB monthly report and at 12:30 we have the Bank of England’s interest rate decision – all of these have the potential to cause large swings on the market so it is worth contacting your currency broker beforehand.