http://www.purefx.co.uk View the latest news entries below. For archived market news articles or to view all news items, please visit our website. en-gb Copyright 2010, PureFX Fri, 30 Jul 2010 10:28:29 GMT 20 http://www.purefx.co.ukgraphics/elements/rsslogo.gif http://www.purefx.co.uk The new coalition government’s budget was the primary focus in June and aggressive measures outlined by George Osborne to cut and reduce the huge national debt were welcomed by the financial markets pushing May was certainly a roller-coaster of a month for the value of sterling. On some days we witnessed exchange rate swings in excess of 2%. To put this into context Clearly, Thursday's general election is the key factor affecting exchange rates this week and sterling has maintained a steady stance against most major currencies Okay I am determined not to turn this currency commentary into political report. However we cannot hide from the fact that as a consequence of a looming general election (latest June) the value of sterling has been under pressure. Why? Well with political uncertainty comes Despite an upward revision of Q4 GDP sterling has lost considerable value against most currencies. The UK economy is estimated to have grown by 0.3% for the 4th quarter compared with Whilst the Christmas champagne may be a little flat by now, we learned a couple of weeks ago that the UK is finally out of recession, which might be The final figure for Q3 GDP was released in December and unfortunately for sterling the UK economy contracted -0.2% causing the pound to weaken on the day. The market expectation Whilst the UK is the last remaining major economy still in recession the latest figures show GDP contracted by 0.3% which is 0.1% less than first thought. Also, earlier in the month Bank of England kept interest rates on hold at 0.5% and introduced an additional October was a mixed bag for sterling as reports early in the month suggested a weak pound in the run-up to Christmas with the Telegraph talking about If we are to believe recent business surveys then the recession in the UK appears to be coming to an end, and most economists are predicting modest growth in Q3. As you will be aware the Bank of England