Hi everyone. I’ve been a bit ‘disconnected’ from the to-ing and fro-ing of the sterling/euro market this week. I suppose it’s no surprise that our favourite exchange rate hardly warrants a second glance over in the pound stalls, and I’ve been dashing round Greater Brittany doing the family rounds since last Monday. I do however remember calling for 1.2300 before the month’s out, and checking on google this morning I see that my forecast is still a little, er, lacking in accuracy? I’m closer than some though. I asked a group in my old local in Chelmsford on Friday night what they thought the current rate was. Two said about 1.17 or 1.18 (spot on); one said 1.84 (miles away but I could see where he was coming from, as the euro against sterling is about 0.84), and the last said about 1 to 1, which means he’s probably bought a sandwich on Ryanair recently.
I have also to confess that I’ve been a bit starved of information this week. Modern life these days means that houses with young children rarely have the news on television. That and the fact that my latest piece of technology stubbornly refuses to link up with any wi-fi signals has left me in a strange feeling of limbo. Not comfortable for someone with a bad back I can tell you.
I can however make an educated guess as to what has been going on this week. Retail sales figures for the Christmas period will have been weak. What a surprise. Did it snow at all? That will have been enough to put the wind up sterling though, and the whispering voices will be out in force casting doubts about the UK economies ability to recover this year when saddled with the austerity package. A load of old tosh I (still) say (for now). For me the euro is still in deeper merde than sterling, and I’ll hang on to my 1.23 forecast til the fat lady has sung.
I’m not sure that I will have the chance to be much more informative next week though. I’m going to swap dear old blighty for four days in Berlin from this Thursday. It will be interesting to see life from the political heart of the Euro powerhouse. I’ll be there for Spectrum’s annual conference, which for any doubters amongst you is a serious financial conference, bringing together over 40 Spectrum advisers from 6 European counties, along with financial experts from many fields, including banking, investments and fund management companies. Jolly? Of course not...


Auf wiedersehen, Rob