Travel

Pound to euro exchange rate: Sterling ‘struggles’ – will coronavirus outbreak affect rate?


The pound to euro exchange rate has struggled to cling onto gains this week, trading well below the €1.20 level on Thursday. It came after GBP rocketed to a new post-election high earlier this week, on Monday.

The pound is currently trading at 1.1943, according to Bloomberg at the time of writing.

The exchange rate opened at 1.1947 today, Bloomberg says.

Michael Brown, currency expert at Caxton FX, spoke to Express.co.uk about the latest pound to euro exchange rate figures.

He said: “Sterling struggled on Thursday, trading well below the €1.20 level, despite a surge in retail sales that confirmed the post-election bounce in the economy and snapped a record-long 5 month streak of no growth.

READ MORE: Pound to euro exchange rate: Sterling slumps – can you still get good holiday money rate?

“Today, the latest flash PMI figures will be parsed for any impact of the coronavirus outbreak on the UK economy, while investors expect the surveys to consolidate last month’s jump.”

The Coronavirus outbreak in China was first reported last month.

To date, nine patients in England have now tested positive for coronavirus.

As of February 20, a total of 5,549 people have been tested, of which 5,540 were confirmed negative and nine positive, the Department of Health and Social Care and Public Health England said.

UK Chief Medical Officers have raised the risk of the public from low to moderate, based on the World Health Organization’s declaration that this is a public health emergency of international concern.

Ryan Howsam, chairman of Staysure said: “At Staysure, we are always on hand to help our customers in these situations.

“Customers who booked their holiday before the outbreak was a known event and purchased the Travel Disruption Extension with their policy will be covered.

“Our Travel Disruption Extension covers emergency incidents where it’s been declared not safe for you to travel, or if you were to get stuck on holiday, due to natural disasters, an outbreak of an infectious disease or terrorism incidents.

“If you are travelling to China soon, it’s best to check the FCO’s travel advice page on their website before you go, just in case the situation changes.

“If you decide to travel against the advice of the FCO, then your travel insurance would be invalid and wouldn’t cover you for cancellation.”

What does today’s pound to euro exchange rate mean for travellers?

The Post Office is today offering online rates of 1.1526 for spends of £400 or more on euros.

This rises to 1.1693 for a spend of £500 or more.

Meanwhile, euros are offered at 1.1753 for those spending £1,000 or more.

Holidaymakers may look to get their holiday Honeywell in advance of the trip in order to make sure they’re not stung at the airport.

Additionally, it may be that a person considers getting up a currency tracker in order to be alerted about good rates.

A currency expert at FairFX recommends keeping a close eye on currency movements in order to help travellers buy at the optimum time.

Ian Strafford-Taylor, CEO of FairFX, said: “We all expect to pay a little more for convenience, but time and time again we’re finding that airport bureau de change desks are ripping off holidaymakers with extortionately high walk-up exchange rates.

As families head into Europe over the bank holiday, they risk losing out on valuable extra holiday money by leaving it so late to exchange their cash.”



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