Nothing much happened to the sterling/euro exchange rate last week. Not much happened last month. In fact, nothing much has happened all year.

This year, sterling has settled into a tight trading range against the shared currency, fluctuating in a 5 per cent valuation band, continuing a trend of steadily reducing volatility over the past three years. So tight is the trading range that some analysts now argue that markets have now achieved what the European Exchange Rate Mechanism failed to do – a pound that trades in a stable, close band against a shared European currency benchmark.