Last week we were able to report on an excellent performance by the British pound. It did well against all five of the major currencies we look at on the currency converter each week. But will we be able to make it two weeks in a row? This is normally a rarity, so let’s see whether it will pan out as such this time as well.
An overview of the currency markets for July 18th – July 22nd 2011
The last time we caught up with the pound it was worth 1.6120 against the US dollar. With the US looking to raise its debt ceiling was it time for the pound to have another good week?
It dropped a little to 1.6085 to start the week off, but after that it was up and up the whole way. Impressively enough, the pound finished the week on a healthy 1.6303 as a result.
But could it do the same against the Euro? Here it had finished the previous week on 1.1396, but although it went up to 1.1452 on day one of the new week, it was as good as things got. After that the pound struggled and ended up on 1.1328 on Friday night as a result. At least it didn’t lose too much ground though.
Now it’s time to see how things panned out against the Hong Kong dollar. The starting rate was 12.563 but we lost out a little on day one, dropping to 12.539. However things looked good from there on in and we finished the week on a delightful 12.703 as a result.
So not bad so far, but we still have the New Zealand dollar and the Australian dollar to look at. We were starting from 1.9162, but unfortunately the pattern here throughout the week would be a distinctive downward slide. In the end we finished up on 1.8834.
Finally it is time to see whether there would be a similar result against the Australian dollar, after starting on 1.5115. We improved to 1.5160 on day one but after that we had a struggle to do any better. Friday night saw a closing figure of 1.4992 as a result. So it was a mixed week for the British pound.
Notable events in the world of currency
The pound dips against the Canadian dollar before recovering
The pound started on 1.5440 and fell to 1.5273 before recovering to 1.5472 by the end of the week.
A steady rise against the Swiss franc
For the most part the pound did well against the Swiss franc last week. It started on 1.3193 and by the time the week was over it had climbed to 1.3355.
A similar picture against the Chinese yuan
The pound did well here too, climbing from 10.418 to 10.510 overall.
The news has been full of two main financial stories these past few days. The first story focuses on the ongoing efforts to raise the US debt ceiling to avert a default. The second focuses on the efforts in Europe to get Greece out of its financial troubles and keep the Euro on an even footing.
This story from the Bloomberg site shows how currencies can rise or fall depending on situations like this. We saw several such fluctuations while deals were being worked out last week, although the situation in the US has yet to be resolved at the time of writing.
So the pound has had a reasonable week all in all, although not as good as the previous one. We can hope that it will start to show more strength again in the coming days and weeks. Until then we shall be watching to see if the Euro and the US dollar do better or worse, which could depend on the state of affairs in their respective regions. We shall be watching.
It shouldn’t come as a big surprise to see the pound doing well against the US dollar this week. The dollar is in dire straits because of the potential default on national debt in the US. Until this issue is resolved their currency will not do any better. At least this is good news for the pound, but one wonders how long it will last for. I shall be watching with interest for the deadline on the decision in the US to fall due.
Well the decision in the US was made in the nick of time, but in the end it didn’t make a jot of difference. They still lost their great credit rating didn’t they? I wonder whether that had a huge effect on their currency. I haven’t been keeping up with all the news reports but I know that they are bound to contain stories of the poor times the US is in. Too many years of good times.