The British pound always seems to have a rough time against the Euro. But with a brand New Year came the hope that we could possibly manage to rectify this and take on the Euro with new strength and determination.
The figure we went into the New Year with was 1.1259, so anything above that for starters would set us off in the right direction. But the immediate news was not good, with a slight slip on day one followed by a lower rate still of 1.1105 the very next day. Was this how the month was going to pan out, or was there more in store?
That first week did end up slightly better on 1.1193, so it gave us hope that perhaps we had simply got off to a poor start and we could move on from here and do better as the month of January went on.
But on the 11th January – a Monday – things seemed to get worse still because the exchange rate went down to 1.1124. If you were keeping up with all this on your currency converter you would probably start expecting even worse figures throughout the rest of the week.
But every day for the rest of the week we saw a different picture emerging. Not only did the pound manage to increase its value against the Euro every single day, it managed to achieve a new height of 1.1229 on the 14th. This was Thursday evening and there was more yet to come as well – the following day saw the pound end the week with a flourish and claim a rate of 1.1350.
So what would happen throughout the rest of the month? We were still only halfway through so although some celebrations were in order it was way too early to think about what could possibly happen by the time we reached the 31st.
But the following Monday saw a better figure of 1.1370 on the cards, followed by a new jump up to 1.1437 the very next day. If we thought this wasn’t sustainable we were proved wrong as we approached the midweek point – this was when we gained a rate of 1.1504 against the Euro.
We couldn’t quite hang on to that though and the week closed with the pound on a still respectable 1.1411. When the 25th saw the pound drop back further to 1.1398 though, we wondered whether we had peaked and seen the best the pound had to offer so far this month. Perhaps we would end up dropping back significantly and undoing all the good work we had done so far.
Those thoughts didn’t last long as the pound soared back to 1.1450 the following day and peaked on 1.1606 two days later. Even though the month ended on 1.1540, this was still a respectable increase and a successful month for the pound against the Euro in the end. Let’s hope we can build on it for the rest of the year too.
It’s good to see the pound started the year off on the right note against the Euro. The question is whether it will continue to do so or not. And that depends on how the Euro stands up to the events of the recession as various countries come out of it.
I still think the Euro is a bad idea so it’s good to see the pound doing well against it for a change. Maybe we can look forward to more positive weeks like this in future? We’ll wait and see but I reckon – I hope – I’m right.
I read the above comment with great interest. It is good to be positive about the pound when it does well. But call me negative if you like; I think the pound will always struggle against the Euro. I don’t like the single currency and the last thing I want to see is the pound getting swallowed up by it.
But I just don’t think the pound has what it takes to really do well against the Euro for any length of time. Not at the moment anyway. Things could change but I don’t reckon they will for a long time yet. What with the election coming up and that dismal Budget last week, we’re stuck with bad exchange rates for a long time yet.
I am going to reply to my above comment and also to Ben who has left a comment about it. I have to say I think the pound is doing badly against the Euro at the moment and it doesn’t seem possible that it will improve any time soon.
But the most worrying thing is that the Euro is doing badly as well, and the pound still cannot get the better of it. Hopefully this will all change soon but I think Ben is right – I think things have got worse and they don’t seem to be looking good at all for a long time into the future.
I wish we could fast forward to ten years from now to see which currencies are doing what!