Following a Sterling rally last week, particularly against the USD, the Pound has dropped back off following Monday’s dismal UK manufacturing PMI data.
Manufacturing activity in the UK came in considerably worse than expectation with June’s figure at 54.3 as compared to a previous figure of 56.3.
This figure, showing expansion, demonstrates that the manufacturing sector was largely unaffected by the uncertainty surrounding the UK General Election and the start of the Brexit process. However, crucially, the rate of expansion slowed again which remains a cause for concern in the long term.
To further compound this point construction PMI released today stalled in June and also missed expectations. This reflects weaker rises in commercial building and civil engineering projects.
US Dollar Surging on a strong US economy together with further geopolitical tensions in the past week, USD is at its strongest versus EUR this year and came within a whisker of breaking through 1.06 in yesterday’s trading. Against the Japanese Yen USD was 154.55 which caused Japanese Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki to break cover […]
France Quite simply the numbers do not add up for President Macron and his future in government, never mind La Belle France and its citizens : France is the third most indebted EU country after Greece and Italy with a debt to GDP ratio of 110.6%. In the past year the deficit has increased by […]
EUR European Central Bank President Madame Lagarde made two bold statements last week: the ECB does not target exchange rates and the ECB is not dependent on Federal Reserve policy. While at one level both are sometimes true, it is brave to explicitly make those statements at a ECB press conference and more than risks […]