The Euro strengthened to its highest level of the year so far against the Pound in light trading and as yesterday’s comments by Bank of England Mark Carney about a possible delay in increasing UK interest rates continues to weigh upon Sterling.
The Euro has been steadily increasing against the Pound over recent sessions as the Bank of England first talked down the Pound and concerns over a rate fixing scandal weighed upon the UK currency. Yesterday’s suggestion by BOE Governor Mark Carney that an increase in interest rates could occur later than initially expected also weighed upon the Sterling. Carney told a parliamentary treasury hearing that due to the amount of slack in the UK economy a rate increase could be put off for longer without adding risk to the nation’s economy.
The Euro continued to rise against the Pound on Wednesday despite the release of data which showed that Eurozone industrial production fell for a second consecutive month in January.
According to Eurostat, production across the 18-member Eurozone, declined by 0.2% on a monthly basis. The data surprised economists who had predicting that output would increase by 0.5%. On a yearly basis production was up by 2.1%.
Economists continue to favour the Euro after last week’s decision by the European Central Bank to maintain interest rates and not introduce new monetary policy.
Concerns over deflation were put at ease and after ECB President Mario Draghi said that ‘the risks surrounding the economic outlook for the Euro area continue to be on the downside’ the single currency has been supported despite data continuing to show the fragility of the regions so called recovery.
Euro (EUR) Exchange Rates
[table width=”100%” colwidth=”50|50|50|50|50″ colalign=”left|left|left|left|left”]
Currency, ,Currency,Rate ,
Euro,
,US Dollar,1.3864 ,
Euro,, Pound Sterling,0.8353 ,
Euro,,Australian Dollar,1.5503 ,
Euro,,Canadian Dollar,1.5400 ,
Pound Sterling,,Euro,1.1958 ,
[/table]
