020 7898 0500The European Central Bank (ECB) can’t have imagined that increasing their programme of quantitative easing (QE) would result in the euro strengthening across the board; 3% against sterling, 2% against the US$, but this was the case yesterday. One reason was that although they increased one negative interest rates by 0.1%, they didn’t change the other one they controlled. Another reason was that although they extended the period of QE by six months they didn’t increase the monthly purchase amount from €60 billion. All in all very much at the lower end of expectations which caught the markets wrong footed hence the rapid strengthening.
Very difficult to work out if this was a knee jerk reaction or we will see further euro strengthening over the next few weeks. Therefore, if you are looking to buy or sell euros, we suggest contacting your trader now for live rates, news and currency-purchasing strategies.
