1st April 2008 Currency Update: euro retreats from its record high

The pound was lifted from recent record lows hit against the euro this morning, with the single currency feeling pressure from poor European bank news and a failure to push above $1.59.

But weak fundamentals for the pound remained as a string of poor data continued to paint a downbeat picture of Britain's economy.

The euro retreated from a record high of 79.82 pence in profit-taking hastened by news that European bank UBS had announced an additional $19 billion of writedowns. Deutsche Bank also said it expects to write down a larger than forecast $4 billion on the value of loans and assets in the first quarter.

Despite stock market resilience to the banking news, currency investors were alert to it highlighting the global nature of current credit-market woes. Right now Interbank is 1.2601 with Natwest offering 1.1997. source IFX