The Bank of England and European Central Bank will deliver their latest monetary policy decisions on Thursday.

No change is expected from either, but it should still mean that sterling and the euro come, at least briefly, into sharper focus.

It’s the single currency that has been doing better of late, boosted by the ECB’s implicit bond backstop and subsequent easing of eurozone tensions.

In July, it cost less than 78p to buy one euro. Now it’s more than 81p.

This comes even though interest rate differentials have moved in sterling’s favour. The spread between 10-year Gilt and Bund yields hit nearly 60 basis points last week, the highest since September 2011.

But, as Lloyds Bank notes: “With risks from Europe significantly reduced compared to earlier last year euro net positioning has now turned marginally net long.”

What may deliver significant upward impetus to the euro/pound is a bout of broader euro strength. Technical analysts note the euro/dollar cross looks to be completing the right side of a bullish head-and-shoulder pattern, which some will consider a longer-term euro-positive formation.