Good morning and welcome to today\u2019s foreign exchange market commentary on Monday the 9th of January.<\/p>\n
The US economy continues to surprise with robust economic data, thus boosting sentiments globally, except Europe. Unemployment fell to 8 pc from 8.7 pc a month ago and about 200,000 jobs were added. 2012 being an election year, President Obama will indeed be relieved with the latest data. However, the FED may now decide to hit the pause button on further QEs.<\/p>\n
This brings us to the EU region and to the GIIPS countries in particular. Already there is a murmur that\u2019s growing stronger that endless austerity measures undertaken in Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain will effectively push these countries in deeper recession. In contrast, labour market and pensions reforms will stimulate long term growth. The combination of tax-hikes and spending cuts are effectively stifling business growth and consumer spending. This is where austerity measures and structural reforms differ. The first pushes the economy down while the latter boosts it.<\/p>\n
EURO\/GBP – 1.2088
\nUS$\/GBP \u2013 1.5430
\nCHF\/GBP \u2013 1.4701
\nCAN$\/GBP – 1.5871
\nAUS$\/GBP \u2013 1.5106
\nZAR\/GBP \u2013 12.5932
\nJPY\/GBP \u2013 118.62
\nHKD\/GBP \u2013 11.98
\nNZD\/GBP \u2013 1.9668
\nSEK\/GBP \u2013 10.6902
\nAED\/GBP \u2013 5.668
\nUS$\/EURO – 1.2761<\/p>\n