Currency Note Sterling

Sterling weakens as investors flee to safe havens

By Ricky Bean March 23rd, 2016

Sterling weakened against the majority of its trading partners on Tuesday as events in Brussels, combined with poor inflation data, continued worries over Brexit, internal government problems and a troubling credit rating agency report following last week’s budget pushed the currency lower.

With a flight to the safety of US, Japanese, and Swiss safe-haven currencies in evidence throughout the morning, sterling had already seen a significant fall from recent one-month highs before the release of inflation data for February. These figures showed that inflation had failed to accelerate as expected to 0.4% in February, instead matching the 0.3% growth seen the previous month. Against a backdrop of uncertainty over UK membership of the EU, this has seen sterling move close to recent one-year lows against the euro.

A quiet day on the economic data front for sterling lies ahead, with investors looking forward to the release of crude oil inventories from the US later this afternoon.

If you are looking to buy or sell sterling, we suggest contacting your trader now for live rates, news and currency-purchasing strategies.