Dear Reader,

Today's overview of economic news and market action: 

• Monetary policy was very much in focus last week, amid a raft of key central bank meetings …
• Most notably, the US Fed cut rates by 25bps, lowering the target range to 4.00-4.25% …
• The BoE and the BoJ left policy on hold last week, as expected …
• Currency-wise, sterling was under some pressure, while the dollar had a volatile week …
• As trading gets underway today, EUR/GBP is north of 87p …
• EUR/USD is in the lower half of $1.17-1.18, having traded to a new YTD high of $1.1919 last week …
• This week, the main release will be the flash PMIs (Sept) in the main advanced economies

All rates quoted are indicative market rates.

The September meeting of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) saw the central bank maintain the Bank Rate at 4.00%. This was very much in line with market expectations. Once again, there was no unanimity within the MPC on its policy decision to hold rates steady.

The September meeting of Federal Reserve Open Market Committee (FOMC) saw the central bank cut interest rates for the first time since December of last year. The target range for the Fed funds rate was lowered to 4.00-4.25%.