Sterling exchange rates have been a lot more positive over the last week with GBPEUR hitting 1.17 and GBPUSD crossing 1.29. We did briefly see Sterling touch these levels at the end of October, but they didn’t hold for long, and the last time before that was around May this year.
The reason why Sterling exchange rates have been elevating is that opinion polls are beginning to show that Boris Johnson’s chance of securing a Parliamentary majority is improving ahead of the General Election next month, with this in mind, we could see GBPEUR exchange rates hit the 1.18 area this week. Another reason for Sterling strength is that Brexit Party candidates have been stood down in more Parliamentary seats across the UK to increase Boris Johnson’s chances of winning, this means that the “Leave Vote” will not be split, which will help with the gaining of a majority in Parliament.
Over the next week, polling numbers are still going to be the biggest market movers, economic data releases generally will now take a back seat until December, unless we see something shocking. On Tuesday we will see the first televised leadership debate, which could be a catalyst for Sterling movement. Boris Johnson will be going head to head against Jeremy Corbyn, and as neither party has released its manifesto yet, I am sure the main topic of this debate will be Brexit- the polls from Tuesday night into the latter half of the week will be very important to see how they managed to sway the public.
If you have an upcoming transaction and would like to know how to manoeuvre the current market, then please don’t hesitate to contact me.