US and UK rates lift-off good news for Irish exporters

While China has been the key news story for global financial markets since the start of the second half of 2015, the actions of the US Federal Reserve will be the main driver of sentiment over the next few months.

We believe it is very important that the Fed raises rates as soon as possible, if only to send a positive signal to financial markets that it has confidence in the US economic recovery and a return to more “normal” conditions.

Our money is on a quarter-point rate hike in September, the first increase since 2006. That should help strengthen the dollar versus the euro, which would be good news for Irish exporters.