Currency watch: Greek woes continue to mount

Woah there Eurozone! The situation in Greece has deteriorated markedly in the past week as traders get more and more fearful of a Greek default.

These fears won’t have been eased by pictures of riots and the announcement that Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou would tender his resignation if it would give some semblance of stability to the political situation.

It is now likely that he will instead form a new government and seek a vote of confidence from Panhellenic Socialist Movement members later in the week.

It is, of course, unclear whether Greece is likely to receive the next portion of bailout money due if the country’s political and economic situation remains in such a state of flux.
 
In the UK, it was inevitable after the boost that the royal wedding provided that we would see things once again slow in May. There had been hopes that the purchasing of Olympic tickets would provide a injection to consumer spending but alas a fall in food sales to levels not seen since June 2008 as a result of soaring food price inflation put an end to any hopes of a strong rebound.

Unfortunately the one thing that we can take from this is that Q2 GDP in the UK is likely to be ghastly.

Jeremy Cook, chief economist at World First foreign exchange, 17.06.2011