It’s time to see whether the British pound has had a reasonable month to start 2019 against the euro. The single currency used throughout several European countries is always an interesting one to look at. With Brexit terms still being thrashed out (allegedly), how would the pound fare this month?
The pound started the year on 1.1119 before edging ahead to close out that first week on 1.1171. A cautious start, then, but at least things were heading in a positive direction from our point of view. It remained that way for the second full week of January too, as the pound managed to head largely in the right direction once more. By the time that week was over, the pound had settled on 1.1205. That equated to an increase of 0.0086, so perhaps not a huge rise but a pleasant one to start off with, nonetheless.
The political wrangling that resumed early this month following the festive break has influenced how the British pound has performed. While it is possible that we could see this continue for some time yet, never has it been more acute than it has been this month.
Fortunately, things seemed to be panning out in favour of the pound as we went further through the month. That might seem odd, given the uncertainty over how and when the country might leave the EU, but there it is. To illustrate this, the pound was settled on 1.1328 one week following the rate we mentioned above. Yes, another significant climb for the currency, knocking back the euro once again. It did appear as though the pound was responding to the better news coming from the government, that in fact some headway was being made on the deal.
If we move ahead one more week, we can see the influence of this as more talks were taking place in the Commons. By the end of the last complete week of January, the pound was standing on 1.1578. To save you working that out, it had gained over four and a half cents against the euro since the start of the year. Quite an impressive feat, and one we think will be remembered as we go further into the year.
We do not yet have the closing rate for the last day of the month, but the pound finished on 1.1422 on the 30th January. This shows a dip from the high point, yet it is still doing very well compared to the beginning of the month. No one can be sure of where it will go next, but it has certainly proven to be an interesting start to the year. Will there be more to come?