February was not quite a one-way track for sterling but it spend much more time on the retreat than it did pushing ahead. It had looked perky in late January as the problems of Greece...

Sterling’s year got off to less of a bang than that which attended 2009’s new-year party. Instead of picking up ten cents in the first ten days, as it did a year earlier, it was not until almost two weeks into January that the pound began to build up steam. After a one and a half cent rally the day before new year's eve...

It is unlikely that 2009 will go down in the records as an annus mirabilis for sterling but things could have been a lot worse. With the sterling/euro exchange rate at €1.02 on new year’s eve a year ago it looked very much as though they were about to get very nasty indeed. The pound had lost ten cents a month for three months...

Yet again the euro managed to avoid the headlines and thereby the attention accorded to its higher-profile peers.

As predicted, the pound has strengthened over the last few weeks – it is now more than 10 percent higher than it was at the start of the year. Combined with low interest rates and the slower property market here in France, that means it now is a really good time to buy in France!