Pound pounds opposition to top currency chart

In a striking return to form, the pound emerged as the top performer last week, strengthening by an average of 1.5 per cent against the other dozen most actively-traded currencies.

For good measure it also took an easy silver, behind the Canadian dollar, for its efforts during the last month.

The biggest difference to sterling's result was made by the minutes of April's Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee meeting, which revealed that 'two members regarded this month's decision [to leave the Bank Rate at 0.5 per cent] as finely balanced'.

Although it was far from a promise of a rate increase next week (w/c 4 May) it was enough to reassure investors that one is in the pipeline.

In the middle of the field the Australian dollar had an eventful week. It fell sharply on Monday (20 April) after the Reserve Bank of Australia governor emphasised in a speech that the possibility of a rate cut 'has to be on the table'. The following day it strengthened sharply on the back of higher-than-expected Australian inflation data, which reduced downward pressure on rates.

When eurozone finance ministers met in Riga on Friday (24 April) they were apparently none too gentle with their Greek colleague, Yaris Varoufakis, reading him the fiscal equivalent of the riot act. His response was to spurn the evening's gala dinner and maintain his insistence on ditching the Troika-imposed austerity plan that has crushed the Greek economy.

Between now and the end of next month, Greece will have to come up with €960 million to repay the IMF and €2.8bn to cover maturing treasury bills.

In the absence of an extension to the bailout Athens is not going to find that sort of money down the back of the sofa. The question now is whether a default would inevitably lead to departure from the euro. The answer seems to be 'probably'.