Buying Euros – Buy now or Wait?

This week is a busy one for the UK starting with the CBI industrial trends survey for December, which provides an early indication of activity in the manufacturing sector. Over the course of the week we also have the Inflation, Retail Price Index, ONS house prices on Tuesday followed by Unemployment, MPC minutes and Retail sales figures towards the end of the week. Expect to see some Pound exchange rate movement this week!

The battle over whether to start quantitative easing in the euro region is all but won, economists say. With less than six weeks to go before the ECB’s next monetary-policy meeting, President Mario Draghi’s drive to corner dissent on more stimulus is taking on added urgency. Plunging oil prices threaten to tip the 18-nation economy into deflation, and banks are showing little appetite to use cheap central-bank cash to boost lending.

There is no data out today in Europe but in the US, industrial production unexpectedly fell in October, with the shortfall largely related to declines in mining and utilities output, while manufacturing rose. The Empire state manufacturing survey is also released today and will provide on of the first indicators of activity for December. Markets are expecting a further improvement this month in November, with the consensus expecting a smaller rise.

Best Foreign Exchange Rates:

GBPEUR 1.2642
GBPUSD 1.5711
EURUSD 1.2426
GBPSEK 11.868
GBPAED 5.7708
GBPAUD 1.9014
EURGBP 0.7908
GBPJPY 186.27
GBPTHB 51.791