On average, the pound was just about unchanged on the week against the other dozen most actively-traded currencies.
The antipodean dollars put in the best performance and the northern Scandinavian crowns shared third place with the US dollar. At the rear of the field, the Swiss franc continued to retrace the dramatic gains it had achieved when the Swiss National Bank set it free in mid-January.
The Canadian dollar's poor showing had no obvious cause, but it was certainly not helped by particularly disappointing retail sales results for December.
Sterling did tolerably well. Investors were expecting a low inflation print so were not too upset to see a headline rate of 0.3 per cent for the year to January. They applauded the fall in UK unemployment to a six-year low of 5.7 per cent and were pleased to see wages running ahead of prices, rising by 2.1 per cent on the year.
There was also a positive reaction to the Bank of England's observation that inflation could 'pick up… fairly sharply' towards the end of the year.
Investors' apparent obsession with the euro was not matched by their efforts to buy or sell the currency. Their optimism that Greece and the Eurogroup would come to a last-minute agreement on a third bailout was vindicated on Friday evening, when it was announced that a bridging loan would postpone the day of reckoning for another four months.
But of course nothing is that simple in Euroland. To qualify for the loan Greece must first present to the Troika a list of the economic reforms it intends to implement. That list is supposed to be in by this Monday evening for approval by the Eurogroup on Tuesday.
Bitter experience suggests Athens' first effort will not win that approval and that more brinkmanship will follow. The euro is not out of the woods yet.
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