9th April 2008 Currency Update:: Sterling reaches record low of eighty pence per euro

Sterling fell briefly to a record of 80p per euro this morning, after a dip in consumer confidence added to a gloomy picture of the UK economy and expectations of an interest rate cut this Thursday. Consumer morale fell to its lowest level in four years in March, according to a survey by the Nationwide Building Society. Taken together with yesterdays Halifax house price index posting its steepest monthly fall in fifteen and a half years, the data heightened talk of a bigger than previously expected 50 basis point B of E rate cut, from 5.25%. In contrast to the B of E, the ECB is expected to hold rates at 4% on Thursday and to signal that it is not ready to start loosening policy any time soon. Right now Interbank is at 1.2530

source IFX