Pound Sterling reached a 4-month high yesterday against The Euro after a mixed bag of PMI results across manufacturing and services sector for both The UK & EU. Across the board results showed a decline in these sectors throughout Europe, whereas manufacturing and services in particular in The UK saw a surprising increase, paving the way for Sterling to climb.
It’s relatively quiet day on the economic front today, but we have started with a basket of PMI Surveys for France, Germany & The Euro-Zone. The consensus across the board seems to suggest a decline in performance through the Manufacturing and Services sector, which right now may not be a major concern, but certainly as the year goes on this could pose a particular problem if this decline was to continue and worsen.
After a fairly positive week for Sterling, December’s Retail Sales put a halt to this run with poor figures recorded last month. This evidently came as a shock to the markets, but can be pinpointed to the fact that many shoppers took advantage of the late November sales as opposed to usually upping their spending during the festive period.
No credit check loans have become a prominent financial solution in Australia, particularly for individuals facing urgent financial needs and holding a bad credit rating. These loans aim to provide a lifeline to those who may be excluded from traditional lending options due to poor credit history.
On Thursday we heard from Christine Lagarde in Davos, given us an small indication that ECB could start to cut rates in the Summer but she was stern on the topic of overconfidence in the market could halt their inflation policy and its vital to continue being data-driven.
Stronger than expected U.S Retail Sales in December has helped to keep the US Dollar elevated near a 5-week high against the major currency pairs, with Interest Rate cut expectations dropping with The Federal Reserve seemingly in no exact rush to lower their rates.
Pound Sterling has risen across the board this morning after UK inflation figures for December increased more than initial expectations. This has now led to markets lowering their expectations for immediate Bank of England interest rate cuts, which of course bodes well for The Pound if as suggested The Federal Reserve and European Central Bank strike first with their respective cuts. Official figures show that inflation rose to 4%, a surprise increase of 0.2% from initial forecasts.
German GDP figures for 2023 was released yesterday and showed a decrease of economic output for 2023 by -0.3%. Showing that the German economy is struggling with higher interest rates. With that in mind, this morning we had German inflation for December recording a level of 3.7% from 3.2% in November.
