How will the French election affect Sterling exchange rates? (Tom Holian)

The Pound has continued to strengthen against all major currencies during the course of this week following the announcement of last week’s snap UK general election which is due to take place on 8th June.

This saw the Pound hit its best rate to buy Euros since November and the highest level to buy US Dollars since September. The political stability that may now happen for the UK has given the Pound a much needed short term boost.

With less than a fortnight to go before the French election takes place we saw the Euro make some short term gains vs the Pound at the start of the week as it looks likely that Macron will win when the vote takes place on May 7th.

However, there is still a risk as to what may happen when the French go to the elections and as we have seen last year events can surprise the markets.

With the Brexit vote and then the Trump vote could we see Marine Le Pen win?

The risk for the foreign exchange market is that if the unexpected happens and Le Pen does win we could see problems ahead for the Euro vs the Pound. However, I personally expect Macron to win convincingly.

Therefore, if you’re concerned about what may happen with the French election coming up and have a currency transfer to make in the next few weeks then it may be worth considering buying a forward contract which allows you to fix an exchange rate for a future date.

Having worked in the foreign exchange industry for one of the UK’s leading currency brokers since 2003 I am confident not only of saving you money when buying currency but also help you with the various contract types on offer compared to using your own bank.

If you would like further information or a free quote when buying or selling currency then contact me directly and I look forward to hearing from you.

Tom Holian [email protected]