Best Euro rates for 6 months

Best Euro rates for 6 months,

Last week saw 2 key decisions go in your favour if you are looking to make payments in Euros at the moment, as the Bank of England announced no extension to their Quantitative Easing (QE) programme, and the European Central Bank called a stop to its recent round of interest rate hikes. Both of these were extremely positive for the sterling to Euro exchange rate, giving opportunities to buy on Friday at the best rates we have seen for some 6 months.

The burst may be short lived however, as UK fundamentals are still very weak, and calls for more QE may see the Bank of England react in future months. This can be demonstrated against other currencies, for example agains the US Dollar we saw rates fall by around 3c.

Also last week the Swiss National Bank announced it had had enough of the worldwide economy using Swiss Francs as a 'safe haven', stating it would buy up other currencies in unlimited amounts in order to devalue the Swiss Franc, which well nearly 8c on Tuesday, again giving much improved exchange rates against sterling.

This week, we have the UK trade balance and inflation figures on Tuesday, and if inflation falls then QE becomes more likely, which would hurt sterling. Unemployment follows on Wednesday, with retail sales on Thursday, so lots of key data and potential banana skins if figures are weaker than expected.