Improving Property market in the Canary Islands aided by improvement in Sterling vs the Euro

MPC member sets the ball rolling with talk of higher UK interest rates. Greece's fiscal problems worry the euro.

After a day's hesitation in the vicinity of Monday's €1.11 starting point the pound set off higher. It was not quite a straight-line advance (it almost never is) but sterling did not really come to a stop until it topped out at €1.13 on Friday. End of week profit-taking brought a brief setback but the pound was back up beyond €1.63 by the time London opened this morning.

Sterling had a good week on almost every front. On the rare occasions it failed to make progress - and only the yen springs to mind - it was steady. There was not universal support in every case to start with but by Tuesday there was wind in every one of sterling's sails. The pound owed its uncharacteristic advance to the Bank of England, specifically to Andrew Sentance, a member of the Monetary Policy Committee. He told The Guardian newspaper that 'Threadneedle Street has done enough to lift Britain out of its deepest post-war slump and will need to consider raising interest rates this year if a recovering economy poses a threat to inflation.' In his opinion the sixth consecutive quarter of falling output in the third quarter of 2009 presented 'an excessively downbeat' picture of the UK economy and he downplayed the risk of a double-dip recession.

That argument received corroboration the following day. The National Institute for Economic and Social Research ('Britain's longest established independent economic research institute' according to its own blurb) reckons the economy grew by +0.3% in the fourth quarter, contracting by -4.8% in calendar 2009. That last figure was given added punch by simultaneous news that Germany's economy shrank by -5.0% on the year. Although the NIESR is not responsible for the 'official' figures investors were happy to accept that the UK economy had finally returned to growth and they clung to that upbeat mood for the rest of the week.

By contrast, investors did not have their usual disregard for factors detrimental to the euro. They have at last fallen in with the idea that Greece's membership of the euro cuts both ways. Total public sector borrowing in Greece is set to reach 120% of gross domestic product this year and could be as high as 140% of GDP in a couple of years' time. The Greek government says it intends to barrow this budget gap but its deeds have so far fallen short of its words. Some analysts have speculated that a possible solution is for Greece to abandon the euro and go back to issuing its own currency, a sort of Drachma II.

At his press conference on Thursday the president of the European Central Bank made his position clear. First he said the idea of Greece leaving the euro was 'absurd'. Then he went on to say the ECB would offer no special treatment to Greece. That means, following the downgrade of Greek credit ratings, that Greek government bonds will not be eligible as collateral at the ECB once it retightens its rules to pre-crisis standards. Yesterday's Sunday Telegraph carried a piece entitled 'ECB prepares legal ground for euro rupture as Greek crisis escalates'. The official ECB line seems to be that a) there is absolutely no chance of Greece leaving the euro and b) this is what will happen when it does. Investors are less than relaxed about the situation.

The pound has spent most of the last three months between $1.58 and $1.68. It starts this week right at the top of that range and looking punchy. If it can consolidate its gains there is nothing to prevent it reaching €1.15 without too much effort. The uncertainty principle still points to a 50% hedge of any euro requirement but there might be better levels at which to make the transaction. Buyers of the euro who are not already hedged should use a stop order for protection in anticipation of this rally carrying further.

Report provided by moneycorp

Where Is Your Pound going in Spanish Real Estate today

Keith Spitalnick Business Development Manager of Currencies Direct predicts an upward trend for the Value of sterling against the euro by the year end. This is good news for Spanish Real Estate and people looking to buy property in the Canary Islands and Spain, prices could not be better as many new properties today are being offered at discounts and of course you have very good prices on some resale properties from people that are having to sell their Spanish property.

Read Keith full story and prediction of how he sees sterling moving, Keith commented, I keep getting asked is where I see GBP/EUR headed by then. I personally feel that GBP/EUR is in an upward trend however the language from the Bank of England is holding it back, trying to hold the pound low. After Christmas sterling could start to rally. 1.1500 is my short term target.


It’s been another busy week for GBP/EUR as the fallout from the latest Quarterly Inflation report was digested in the papers; the Banks assessment for growth is now twice the latest consensus of their panel of independent forecasters and their predictions for inflation and interest rate levels over the next couple of years have been revised sharply higher. This helped to boost the pound ahead of the Bank of England minutes last Wednesday. The pound also rallied as we saw the UK inflation numbers come in higher than expected. This gave Sterling a strong boost all round, on expectations that, with inflation “surging”, rates might have to be raised sooner rather than later. I think that this is an unlikely scenario and that Base Rates will remain at these low levels until the 3rd quarter next year, possibly longer.


The Euro was not so fortunate with comments from ECB president Trichet rattling the euro. He commented that the fiscal situation in some European countries is so bad that there is a danger that markets will lose faith in them. At last a bit of plain talking from the ECB! In addition we saw the Euro current account showing a deficit of €5.4 billion - this was concerning as it identified a surge in imports and slumping exports; this could bring the strength of the euro back to the fore as a red flag for the ECB. If this issue is raised it could start to turn the tide on recent euro strength…

Unfortunately the pound could not hold onto its gains after peaking at 1.13. This was due to the split decision from the Bank of England who were split three ways on the November Quantitative Easing vote. 7 backed the £25 billion increase, David Miles wanted a £40 billion increase and Spencer Dale wanted no change. This undermined sterling which immediately dropped over half a cent against the USD and the Euro. The split has highlighted the indecision on future policy and this is hardly surprising given the implications on monetary policy decisions within the current economic climate.

So overall its the same old problems hurting the pound in the form of QE and concern over public debt. However it is widely expected that UK GDP will be revised higher next week for the third quarter and that fourth quarter data will show an exit from the recession...therefore the pound should start to perform better going forward. Last week we also witnessed one or two red flags from the Euro zone and the recent support of the euro against the US dollar could wane if more concerns arise...this would certainly play into GBP/EUR gains.



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