Dollar Taking A Hit, Can You Guess Why ?

From Thursday last week it's been a tough run for the currency...

With plenty of US related geopolitical news, traders are potentially showing their disquiet as other currencies go up versus the Dollar.

From Thursday last week it's been a tough run for the currency.

Generally speaking global news stories rarely affect currency rates unless they are specifically around a certain countries denomination.

Scheduled news stories and economic sentiment usually have more weight in exchange rate fluctuations.

With that in mind here's a view of what the rest of the week looks like....and it's a strong week.

Australian inflation is first out of the traps with annualised growth of 3.6% expected.

However it's after that that the bigger stories start, and it's all about interest rate decisions.

The Bank of Canada is expected to keep its base rate at 2.25% on Wednesday.

Later in the evening sees the US rate decision with the FED expected to keep their rate at 3.75%.

The FED press conference could be the big Dollar mover.

Economic calendar:
AUS: Wednesday 12:30am Inflation Report
CAN: Thursday 14:45pm BoC Interest Rate Decision
US: Thursday 19:00 FED Interest Rate Decision
US: Thursday 19:00 FOMC Press Conference

So what next, what should you do?

As ever we look forward to keeping you in the loop and so please look out for our next update.

Our friendly currency experts are here to assist you and guide you through the markets, we offer a first-class service and even an online platform so you can monitor your transaction in real time.

Our business ethos is based on bank beating rates and fantastic customer service, click the link below for a no obligation quotation and see the savings for yourself.

Don’t wait. Contact us now.

Or to find out our latest rates, click below.

Get ahead of the game and read our Guide to Foreign Currency Exchange.

Download the Guide Here - with no obligation of course.

Kind regards, 
David Evans 
Co-Founder of Cle France.

1. Great exchange rates
2. Quick and easy transfers
3. No transfer fees
4. Expert help and guidance
5. Authorised by the FCA

Current rates: 

Tuesday 27th January 2026 at 10:00

£1.00 GBP = 1.1525 EUR

£1.00 GBP = 1.3700 USD

£1.00 GBP = 1.9775 AUD

£1.00 GBP = 2.3935 NZD

£1.00 GBP = 1.8780 CAD

£1.00 GBP = 1.0630 CHF

• Want to Learn More?

• We have created a selection of Free PDF Guides for you to download covering many aspects of buying property abroad, visit our PDF Guides Page today or download our "Buying A Property in France" Guide PDF document.
•  
  • At Clé France / Regency FX, many of our customers have a need for currency exchange.
  • We are pleased to offer our customers favourable exchange rates on international currency transfers.
  • As a Clé France website visitor, you qualify for preferential exchange rates when you transact through Regency FX.

How to Save Money on your foreign currency transfers

• Regency FX can save you money by offering more competitive rates of exchange than your bank.
• Clients can typically save you 3-4% of the total transaction value, which can result in significant cost savings.
• All client funds are held in segregated accounts with top-tier banks keeping your money safe and secure.
• Cle France has partnered with Regency FX, a trusted and fully safeguarded currency exchange provider, to bring you even better service and exclusive benefits when transferring money internationally.

For everything you need to know about French property visit www.clefrance.co.uk

The Cle France You Tube Channel.

Have you visited the Cle France You Tube Channel yet? below is David's weekly 10 minute review of our latest property listings and price reductions highlighted in our weekly newsletter.

This video aims help visitors to our website get the best experience, hope you like it and you learn something, please feel free to leave a comment, let us know if you would like anything explaining or for us to cover something different and of course; please Like and Subscribe.

Check out the video now by clicking the image below.

See you there!

Visit the Cle France You Tube Channel for more videos including property walk-through videos, on location, how to... and many more videos.

For everything you need to know about French property visit www.clefrance.co.uk

Sterling Recovers.

The question is will the recovery keep running...

Sterling ended the year on the ascension against both the Dollar and the Euro.

It started the year in similar fashion reaching 3 month highs this week.

The question is will the recovery keep running.

With global tensions rumbling it's a difficult question to gauge.

Will traders and investors start moving towards perceived safe havens such as gold which could bolster the Dollar?

On a more granular level, trading continues in a normal fashion responding to scheduled news rather than the more spectacular global news stories.

There's Chinese inflation numbers overnight with annualised growth of 0.9% which precedes big Canadian and US data tomorrow.

Canada is expected to release an unemployment rate of 6.6% at the same time as the much anticipated US non farm payrolls.

Analysts are predicting employment growth of 60,000 jobs.

The jobs data in the US has been under close scrutiny over recent months with the reported numbers often in contradiction to the Presidents rhetoric.

Economic calendar:
CHN: Friday 01:30 Inflation Report
CAN: Friday 13:30 Unemployment Rate
US: Friday 13:30 Non Farm Payrolls

So what next, what should you do?

As ever we look forward to keeping you in the loop and so please look out for our next update.

Our friendly currency experts are here to assist you and guide you through the markets, we offer a first-class service and even an online platform so you can monitor your transaction in real time.

Our business ethos is based on bank beating rates and fantastic customer service, click the link below for a no obligation quotation and see the savings for yourself.

Don’t wait. Contact us now.

Or to find out our latest rates, click below.

Get ahead of the game and read our Guide to Foreign Currency Exchange.

Download the Guide Here - with no obligation of course.

Kind regards, 
David Evans 
Co-Founder of Cle France.

1. Great exchange rates
2. Quick and easy transfers
3. No transfer fees
4. Expert help and guidance
5. Authorised by the FCA

Current rates: 

Thursday 8th January 2026 at 16:30

£1.00 GBP = 1.1525 EUR

£1.00 GBP = 1.3435 USD

£1.00 GBP = 2.0075 AUD

£1.00 GBP = 2.3365 NZD

£1.00 GBP = 1.8625 CAD

£1.00 GBP = 1.0740 CHF

• Want to Learn More?

• We have created a selection of Free PDF Guides for you to download covering many aspects of buying property abroad, visit our PDF Guides Page today or download our "Buying A Property in France" Guide PDF document.
•  
  • At Clé France / Regency FX, many of our customers have a need for currency exchange.
  • We are pleased to offer our customers favourable exchange rates on international currency transfers.
  • As a Clé France website visitor, you qualify for preferential exchange rates when you transact through Regency FX.

How to Save Money on your foreign currency transfers

• Regency FX can save you money by offering more competitive rates of exchange than your bank.
• Clients can typically save you 3-4% of the total transaction value, which can result in significant cost savings.
• All client funds are held in segregated accounts with top-tier banks keeping your money safe and secure.
• Cle France has partnered with Regency FX, a trusted and fully safeguarded currency exchange provider, to bring you even better service and exclusive benefits when transferring money internationally.

For everything you need to know about French property visit www.clefrance.co.uk

French Culture – New Year’s Traditions

On this deuxième jour de janvier (second day of January), I’d like to start off by wishing everyone une très bonne année! (a very Happy New Year!) New Year’s provides the French with not one, but two more chances to do what they do best . . . celebrate!

Like most festive French holidays, New Year’s (both le Réveillon et le jour de l’An / New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day) feature great food and, of course, Champagne!* Many French New Year’s feasts also feature a (or many!) big platter(s) of freshly shucked huîtres (oysters). Shipped fresh from the ports of la Bretagne (Brittany), les huîtres are a favourite of the French for the holidays

Les mois sans ‘r’

While oysters are now consumed year-round, historically eating oysters (and other seafood) in the warmer months could be dangerous for those living far from the shore (no refrigeration meant that delicate seafood could easily spoil in transport). Oysters also reproduce when the water around them gets warm (generally in mid-spring and summer months of mai, juin, juillet, et août / May, June, July, and August) and some find that oysters are not as good at this this time. These two facts resulted in a common French tradition of avoiding oysters in les mois sans ‘r’/months without an ‘r’!

Le saviez-vous? / Did you know?

Le jour de l’An (New Years Day) was not always January 1st. For centuries, the start of the year varied from country to country and even sometimes by region. In parts of France the new year once started on April 1 (and some say that the tradition of le poisson d’avril dates from this period). It wasn’t until the late 16th century, when Pope Gregory XIII introduced the Gregorian calendar we know today, that January 1 was officially established as the start of the new year (at least throughout the Christian world).

* While most wine-producing countries have some form of vin mousseux/sparkling wine (Prosecco from Italy, Cava from Spain; even France has vin mousseux produced in regions outside Champagne ), Champagne is only Champagne if it is produced in the French region of the same name.

Blog submitted by: Alex at The French Property Network - Cle France.

French Question: Why is it “Le Novel An” and not “Le Nouveau An”?

We wish all of our subscribers a happy and healthy 2026.

Talking about the new year in French can be especially difficult. This is because there are two words that mean “year”–an (m) and année (f), and because both of these words start with a vowel, which can change the word that comes before it.

What’s the difference between an and année? Besides the fact that an is masculine and année is feminine, an describes a particular moment during the year while année describes a span of time (this is similar to the pairs soir and soirée).

Thus, you would say: C’est le jour du nouvel an (It’s New Year’s Day) using an instead of année because you are referencing a particular moment of time during the year (New Year’s Day).

If, however, you would like to wish someone a happy new year, this is over a span of time, which lasts for the entire year. That’s why you use année in the expression “Happy New Year” or bonne année.

But there’s another trick when referencing the new year, or le nouvel an, in French. Because an is masculine, the adjective typically used with it should be nouveau. However, in French, an adjective cannot end with a vowel if the following noun also begins with a vowel (for reason of pronunciation or liaison).

Thus, there is always a masculine form of a word that can be used only in front of masculine nouns that start with vowels. In this case, that would be nouvel. Nouvel is pronounced just like the feminine form nouvelle, so don’t get confused if you hear someone say le nouvel an–this doesn’t mean that an is feminine. (You can also think about the difference between the demonstrative adjectives ce (masculine), cette (feminine), and cet (masculine before a masculine noun that begins with a vowel).

Alors, je vous souhaite tous une bonne année et j’espère que vous avez passé un bon nouvel an avec votre famille!

Bonne année! Happy New Year!

Blog submitted by: Alex at The French Property Network - Cle France.