The euro struck its highest level against the British pound today as Britain stands on the verge of recession.
The euro reached 87.79 pence sterling - the highest level since creation of the European single currency in 1999. It later fell a little to stand at 87.65 pence sterling this evening.
Analysts said the recent plethora of bad British economic data and survey evidence relating to retail sales, unemployment, service sector activity, manufacturing output and construction activity highlight that the UK economy has taken a major turn for the worse.
The euro was also worth just over $1.30 this evening.
A report from Merrion Stockbrokers says the weakness in sterling is causing significant problems for the wider economy. It points out that exporters to the UK tend to be in labour intensive industries, so the impact on unemployment figures could be greater than the impact on overall growth.
It adds that the companies most affected by sterling weakness are Kingspan, Grafton, Greencore, Paddy Power, Abbey and McInerney.
