Renewed nervousness about sterling. Bank of England still gloomy about the outlook. Britain falls behind in the economic stakes. Germany and France pulled out of recession in Q2.
Sterling started the week heading down towards €1.17 and when it got there it barely paused before heading even lower. It spent most of the week trying - and failing - to break back above €1.1650. Dips below €1.16 on Wednesday,
Thursday and Friday were all followed by a recovery of sorts and the pound was playing the same game of brinkmanship when it opened in London this morning below €1.16.
UK housing market statistics were both a blessing and a curse for sterling. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors' house price balance on Tuesday morning came in at -8.1, ten points better than the previous month's -18.1.
It was not a good figure but at least it was an appreciable improvement. Sunday night's report from property website Rightmove was a different matter. Asking prices on the website fell by -2.2% between July and August.
It was absolutely not a positive sign for Britain's economy or the British pound, even though the huge 43% gap between Rightmove's asking prices (£228k in July) and actual transactions recorded by the Nationwide and the Halifax (average £159k for the same month) call into question the relevance of Rightmove's data.
Sterling got another smack in the teeth on Wednesday from the Bank of England's Quarterly Inflation Report, a publication by which investors set great store, and from the Governor's introductory comments. Lest anyone be unduly optimistic, Dr King opened up with the warning that "The world economy remains in a deep recession and its financial system in a fragile condition."
As for the British economy, recovery could be "slow and protracted". The immediate impact was muted but the sentiment festered in investors' minds.
The situation was not helped by news that other economies were pulling out of recession while the UK economy continued to contract in the second quarter of the year. As previously reported, Britain's Gross Domestic Product shrank by -0.8% in Q2.
Several competitors have reported better figures for the period, including the States, Euroland, Germany, France and Japan - to name but five.
In a seasonally quiet week there was no particular underlying appetite to push the euro one way or the other. However, the single European did less than sterling to spoil its own chances and it had the benefit of occasionally helpful data.
They did not include Euro zone industrial production, which fell by -0.6% in June, reversing May's gains. Nor did it help that consumer price deflation accelerated from -0.6% to -0.7% in July.
Thursday's figures for Gross Domestic Product in Q2, on the other hand, were very helpful. Although the overall euro zone figure was still negative at -0.1% for the quarter it was still better than the equivalent number in Britain.
The main shot in the arm for the euro came from individual national figures from France and Germany, both of which were positive at +0.3%. As far as the market was concerned, if France and Germany have pulled out of recession then the same must be true, eventually, for Euroland as a whole. That assumption was positive for the euro itself.
Sterling is close enough to €1.15 to be a worry. A downward break of that level would set things up for another two or three cents of loss. Investors are currently finding it easier to identify sterling's problems than to focus on its good points. Buyers of the euro should think twice before leaving their exposure unhedged.
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