We know that the recent weeks have not been good for the British pound. Now, as we take a fresh monthly look at how it has performed on the currency converter, it is time to see whether it had anything to show against the yen. The Japanese yen may well have more to show for itself than the pound at this point in time. But let’s see what actually happened as we focus in on the events of August.
The opening rate was 134.890 for the pound, so it was looking to further its aims by improving on that as soon as possible. The first day back for the month saw it climb to 137.130 so this was certainly a very good start. There were a couple of ups and downs from that point on, before the week finally settled on a closing rate of 136.296. Not too bad to begin with – but there was a lot more left in the month (and in the yen) yet.
Another improvement from the pound opened the following week. It climbed to 136.657 on Monday night before dropping back to 136.657 the very next day. As it turned out that improvement on Monday would be the best we could hope for during the week against the yen. The very next day saw a rate of 133.558 instead. Although the pound crawled up to 133.682 to close out that week, there was clearly going to be a lot of hard work still ahead if we were going to achieve anything of note over the month as a whole.
This was evident as the pound rapidly dropped to 133.244 after two days of trading for the following week. The changes all seemed like small ones so far, but there were a lot of them to think about and a lot still to come as the month marched on.
That week, the week ending the 20th August, ended on 132.511 for the pound. It looked as if there might be further drops in store as well as the pound was struggling against other currencies too. The only thing it reaped in abundance was negative headlines about its fight to stay in contention.
This was evident on the 25th as it closed the day in a sorry state on 130.103. Was this the start of a final slump for the pound as we neared the end of the month as a whole? It didn’t seem possible that it could recover from this in so little time.
It did manage to buck up to 131.294 as the week finished, but there was still more disappointment in store, even though only two days remained to improve before the month ended. The final rate on the 31st was 129.813, leaving the pound much lower than it had been when the month began. The Japanese yen had certainly got the better of it on this occasion, and it may well do again.
I’m not heading out to Japan in the near future on business, but it is still a very important currency to be aware of in the business world. The yen is one of the main currencies we hear people talk about, and it is important that the pound is seen to do well against it. However this month was clearly not a good time for the currency. I hope it can find some more strength from somewhere in future.
I have to say I agree largely with the above commenter. The yen is indeed a major currency and it would be good to see it being reported on more. I think this website is quite even and fair in the currencies it reports on, but I do still want to hear about lesser known ones as they add to the quirkiness of the mix. Where would we be without them all?