Brit tourists are facing a rock-bottom exchange rates as euro drops to TWO-YEAR low against the pound. The good news for Brits jetting to the continent for summer holidays comes just in time for the big summer getaway, with euro at 84p against the pound sterling.
Buying your foreign currency ahead of when you travel means you can search around for the best rates. The alert to stock up on foreign currency if you’re jetting to the European Union comes after research revealed Brits at the airport could be overpaying by £200.
It comes after the French President, Emmanuel Macron, gambled on a snap poll after his Renaissance party was thumped by Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally in the European elections. Ulrich Leuchtmann, Head of FX and Commodity Research at Commerzbank and Frankfurt, says Euro weakness follows European Parliament elections where “Euro sceptic and anti-European parties have made gains, particularly in the major EU countries. And there are new elections in France. Their result could complicate policy-making in France.”
READ MORE UK set to sizzle in Azores High heatwave which ‘is as hot as Spain and Portugal’
“The poor showing of incumbent political parties in France and Germany at the weekend’s European Parliamentary elections – plus President Macron’s decision to dissolve parliament – are weighing on the single currency,” says Chris Turner, head of FX analysis at ING Bank.
“France is in a situation where reforms are becoming impossible,” Alexandre Hezez of the Groupe Richelieu investment group told Le Monde. “We already saw this with the S&P downgrade. “All of this shows that there is a risk of budget deficits, debt and maybe even more downgrades in the near future”.
Bruno Cavalier, lead economist of independent financial group Bourse Oddo BH, agreed saying the relatively stable economy of the past two years cannot be taken for granted going forward. “These latest events create uncertainty at a time when the latest economic and budget results are quite mediocre.”