Boris Johnson says some foreign travel will ‘open up’ on May 17th

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The pound to euro exchange rate continues to hold just above the 1.15 today, similar to what it has been trading at in the past few weeks. According to one expert, this is unlikely to change until the Bank of England meeting on Thursday.

The pound is currently trading at a rate of 1.1533 at the time of writing, according to Bloomberg.

Michael Brown, currency expert at Caxton FX shared his insight into the current exchange rate. 

He said: “Sterling-euro remains rather dull, perhaps unsurprisingly given the closure of London markets yesterday. 

“The cross continues to hold just north of the 1.15 handle, and is unlikely to deviate too much from this level before Thursday’s BoE decision, and local elections.”

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It was also a quiet trading day just before the bank holiday weekend on Friday.

At the time, Mr Brown said: “Sterling-euro continues to hover just north of the 1.15 handle, and do very little else.

“Today’s busy calendar of eurozone data – including first-quarter GDP – is unlikely to move the needle much, given the degree of ‘bad news’ that was priced into the common currency long ago.

“As such, we could be looking at another quiet trading day before the bank holiday weekend arrives.”

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The ban on international travel is set to be lifted on May 17 in the next step of easing lockdown restrictions.

Countries will be placed under the Government’s “traffic light” system, but it is thought that only a handful of countries will be on the “green list”, meaning there will be no mandatory quarantine on return into the UK.

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James Lynn, co-CEO and co-founder of Currensea explained: “It is beginning to look more and more likely that international travel will be back on the cards this Summer with the announcements this week that Spain will be welcoming tourists back in June and the NHS app will be used as a vaccine passport for travel.

“While we await a more formal announcement from the Prime Minister around which countries we will be able to travel to (and when) it may be tempting for many to rush to book this year’s holiday and take out holiday money now in preparation.”

With eager holidaymakers waiting to go abroad, the expert warned against taking travel money out now.

He added: “However, while it is tempting to take out foreign currency in anticipation of a holiday I would advise against this.

“Market movements are often more marginal in reality than they appear. 

“Especially during this volatile time, it’s safer to keep hold of your money in your UK bank account than purchasing or exchanging for holiday money.

“Once we are allowed to travel again, this will hopefully signify the end of the COVID bump and I anticipate this will mean the pound will improve significantly.”

Spain has said British travellers will be welcomed back this summer as it prepares for June to be the month for tourism “recovery”.

However, it is thought that holiday islands in Spain are set to be on the UK’s “amber” list with insiders revealing only a “tiny handful” of destinations including Gibraltar, Israel, Iceland and Malta on the “green” list. 

This means that holidaymakers returning from these countries will be subject to a 10 day quarantine period at home as well as a negative test on return.

Islands set to be on the “amber list” includes the Balearics, where the rate of coronavirus cases is less than a quarter of that in Spain, and the Canary Islands, which has vaccinated nearly a third of its adult population.

It is thought that Portugal could be the only major holiday destination in Europe on the “green” travel list. 

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