Euro on the rise sending the USD lower and GBP higher as short positions were unwound ahead of year end which together with thin liquidity has exacerbated what would normally have been a smaller set of moves.
Ages: 0-14 yrs 17%; 15-24 yrs 12%; 25-54 yrs 48%
Population: 1.435 Billion
Growth rate: 0.6%
The last statistic is the one to note as you will have noted that as 77% of the population is below the age of 54, that means 23% is above the age of 55. Not a problem for the moment but given increased longevity and the 48% of the population between 25 and 48, when they are no longer working in 40 years time, it will be a problem. They will all need to be paid for in older age and a smaller workforce will have to work that much harder. This is not unfamiliar to those in Western Europe who now have to deal with both a declining and an ageing population.
Booked your spring bank holiday weekend away? Smug that you are ahead of the pack? Even though you have paid double for those flights to Spain? Oh dear. 30 million diaries were printed and sold before the announcement that the traditional first Monday in May had been moved to Friday May 8 to commemorate Victory in Europe or VE Day. Apparently blissfully unaware of this, many Brits keen to get those towels on the sunbeds ahead of the Germans/ French/Dutch have plonked their money down, booked their flights for the weekend of 1-4 May, and there’s the clue, now look like plonkers!
Discussion and Analysis by Humphrey Percy, Chairman and Founder
Click Here to Subscribe to the SGM-FX Newsletter
Related Insights
Daily Brief – Defiance
Charles Porter
Tue 12 May 2026
Defiance Yesterday’s market was defying one of two things: logic or gravity. Come to think of it, perhaps both. Take cable, GBPUSD, yesterday. The key events beyond minor data releases centred around any chatter from either side of the Iranian conflict and Starmer singing for his supper. Sing he did and tweet the President did, […]
Daily Brief – A technicality
Charles Porter
Thu 25 Jun 2026
A technicality Markets appeared to be fatigued by Trump’s Iran war before a ceasefire had even been agreed. This was evident from pricing that would have been considered complacent should the conflict have dragged on longer than it ultimately did. Now, that saga is far from over – it’s inevitable, for example, that as the […]
Daily Brief – Short-lived relief rally
Charles Porter
Tue 19 May 2026
Short-lived relief rally A tantrum in the bond market has continued to erode away at risk conditions in recent sessions. In the UK, the sell-off in gilts and corporate bonds has been particularly acute thanks to heightened political instability, the origins of which we have covered thoroughly in recent briefings. Yesterday, headlines delivered enough optimism […]
