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POUND
Sterling traded near a 16 month high yesterday against the Euro as pressure on the single currency intensified with no solution to Europe’s financial problems in sight. The pound has been heavily supported by the situation in Europe rather than it’s own strength and this has been evident in the GBP/USD rate, which remains below 1.55. The main event this week for investors regarding sterling will be the BoE rate decision on Thursday with the MPC expected to keep rates and QE on hold for now. There is continued expectation on the back of a poor performing economy that the BoE will restart QE and print more than the £275 billion current level to try and restore a more positive growth figure. In positive news retail sales numbers came out at 2.2% against –1.6% expected.

EURO
The Euro is staying within 1.27 against the USD this morning but has made some slight gains against the UK pound. An abs

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Last week it came to my attention that Air Miles changed their expiry policy, something, which I am sure a lot of people, did not see coming. This new Air Miles expiry policy came to my attention as I was making BankNerd’s Best of the Best article. That being said, I first read about the new Air Miles expiry policy on Rewards Cards Canada.

The new Air Miles expiry policy can now expire; in fact starting December 31st, 2011, all Air Miles reward miles in your account will have a date stamp of 5 years. What this means is that any reward miles you have earned before December 31st, 2011 will have to be redeemed by December 31st, 2016.

Any Air Miles reward miles you earn after December 31st, 2011 will need to be redeemed 5 years from when they were posted. F

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Local bank economists have been told it may be four years before Christchurch stops shaking, and some fear as many as one in 10 residents will leave the region if major aftershocks like today’s continue in coming months.

“At this juncture, there’s not much other than to look to the sky above,” said the ANZ’s chief economist, Cameron Bagrie of the major after-shocks on the last normal business day before the Christmas weekend. “He’s been dishing out the bad stuff in spades. Sure, we got the Rugby World Cup, but we need some other good news on the ledger.”

Not only do the quakes inevitably delay the Christchurch rebuild, but they were likely to encourage a much larger exodus from the city than was already likely, he said.

The aftershocks recorded at 1.58 p.m. and 3.18 p.m.

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