Sintra, Portugal and the ECB Governor
Mario Draghi ECB Governor despite the reported highest rate of wage growth reported earlier in the week saw weak inflation and growth as key challenges in his speech at Sintra yesterday. He also said that further rate cuts remain an option that the ECB may choose. So it is not only politically that the UK looks to be at odds with Europe, as Governor Carney and the MPC are contemplating rate rises rather than cuts!
Facebook: the next frontier-Libra.
The expected news that Facebook will be launching their own global currency called Libra which will be kept in a wallet called Colibra was unveiled yesterday. All sorts of questions kicking off with, why? After all Facebook have been here before with Facebook credits that were meant to be a global payment mechanism and also it should be remembered were quietly dropped after two years having failed to gain interest. Facebook said: “In time, we hope to offer additional services for people and businesses, such as paying bills with the push of a button, buying a cup of coffee with the scan of a code, or riding your local public transit without needing to carry cash or a metro pass.” Small point: all of the above can be accomplished now either through our phones or credit cards, so no need to wait for two years until Facebook launch!
If you have dropped a Euromillions lottery ticket with those numbers down the back of your sofa, it would pay you to hold off watching Love Island and fish it out before proceeding to claim the prize of £123,458,008 which has remained unclaimed from the 11 June draw. If you would like to convert your winnings into Yen, USD, EUR or actually pretty much any currency, SGM-FX’s James awaits your call-and says he is happy to share!
Conservative Leadership and PM contest
At 6pm yesterday the 313 Conservative MPs delivered their verdict in the second round for who should progress to the third round of the contest. Despite early promise and good progress from Stewart, it was big beasts Boris and Gove ahead of Hunt, Sajid Javid and Stewart who made it -thereby eliminating Raab.
Colonel Sanders’ KFC is the latest chain to climb aboard the no meat train with an Imposter Burger following in the meat substitute footsteps of Byron, Burger King and Greggs. Those interested should get themselves over to KFC Gloucester Road SW7 together with SGM-FX’s part-time vegan, Sam where the men in white coats and clipboards are trialling the Imposter Burger. Early reports suggest that plenty of ketchup and mustard required to spice up the BB as in bland burger..…
Discussion and Analysis by Humphrey Percy, Chairman and Founder
Click Here to Subscribe to the SGM-FX Newsletter
Related Insights
Daily Brief – UK Employment
Humphrey Percy
Wed 16 Apr 2025
UK Employment At 75.1%, employment for people aged 16-64 looks sort of OK depending on what that really means, but it does not alter the fact that there are currently 1.55 million people who are unemployed, or 4.4% of the potential workforce. Another much more significant number, is that there are currently 9.27 million people […]
Daily Brief – Eastern Europe and Central Asia
Humphrey Percy
Fri 25 Apr 2025
Eastern Europe and Central Asia Between 2010 and 2019 economic growth in this large geographic area averaged 4%. According to the World Bank, that growth will decelerate to 2.5% for the next 2 years and even stripping out Russia that will still be lower at 3.3%. Inflation, weak external demand from the EU, global uncertainty […]
Daily Brief – British Pound
Humphrey Percy
Wed 23 Apr 2025
British Pound A 7 month high versus USD, and GBP is at present benefitting from the self inflicted wounds that the USA is continuing to suffer, the latest of which is the speculation over whether POTUS will defenestrate the Chair of the Federal Reserve. At the moment, and we choose our words carefully given the […]
