Foreign Exchange Insight : GBP EUR Rate Edges Higher on Encouraging UK Retail Sales Data and Renewed Investor Concern Over Eurozone Debt Crisis

October 21, 2011 - Written by John Cameron

STORY LINK Foreign Exchange Insight : GBP EUR Rate Edges Higher on Encouraging UK Retail Sales Data and Renewed Investor Concern Over Eurozone Debt Crisis

The Pound Euro exchange rate (GBP EUR) is 1.1459. The Pound Dollar exchange rate (GBP USD) is 1.5804. The Pound Australian Dollar exchange rate (GBP AUD) is 1.5446.

Yesterday saw the release of significantly better-than-anticipated UK Retail Sales data for September. The numbers revealed that British shop sales, (a figure which excludes Auto fuel), expanded by a monthly 0.6% last month.

This figure showed a significant turn-around from August’s counterpart number, which had shown a monthly contraction of 0.4%. The data provided analysts with some encouragement that British citizens may be minded to ‘spend their way out of recession’.

The Office of National Statistic's shop sales numbers stated that September’s retail figures were buoyed by a high level of internet purchases and also by an increased level of IT and computer software purchases. On the debit side, a disappointing level of textile sales stopped the numbers from being even more encouraging.

In spite of the highly respectable UK Retail Sales figures, the Pound lost ground against almost all of the other majors on the day. The two currencies that Sterling managed to outperform were the Rand and the Euro. Both came under selling pressure thanks to worries over the continued delay by Eurozone policy-makers in formulating a cogent policy to tackle Europe’s ongoing debt crisis.

These fears were stoked during yesterday afternoon’s session when France’s leader Nicolas Sarkozy emerged from a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and stated that there was a difference of opinion between the two on how best to tackle the Eurozone’s long-standing debt crisis. Equities markets reacted particularly badly to Sarkozy’s comments, with Frankfurt and Paris’s stock exchanges both closing down by over 2% on the day.

The Euro continued to leak support on the day thanks to escalating levels civil unrest in Greece, where rioters have taken to the streets in protest at the stringent austerity measures which the country’s parliament has implemented. Reports stated that protestors turned on each other, leading to one death.


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