Welcome back to another week of information from the currency markets. How did the British pound perform up against the other world currencies on the currency converter last time around? Let’s find out now.
An overview of the currency markets for November 21st – November 25th 2011
When we last caught up with the pound against the US dollar it was worth 1.5821. Would it increase or decrease in value from that amount over this week? Things didn’t look good when it immediately dropped to 1.5648 on day one, and from then on it went from bad to worse as well. By the end of the week the pound had dropped even further to a low point of 1.5457.
Next up we can take a look at the Euro. It is still in existence at the moment although things look rather uncertain. But let’s see how the pound tackled the single currency last week. The opening rate was 1.1654 and once again the pound dropped on the first day, although not by as much here. It then dropped to 1.1551 before recovering over the remainder of the week to 1.1684.
Our third stop is with the Hong Kong dollar. Here we were starting from a rate of 12.320 and once again the only way, it seemed, was down. We dropped with every single day that came our way, and by the time the week was over we had fallen all the way to 12.051. This was clearly not going to be a good week for the British pound.
Let’s see how we fared against the New Zealand dollar now, with a starting rate of 2.0744. Things were at least looking up here as we reached a day’s end high of 2.0866 by Monday night. Could we keep this up? Indeed we could, as we did better and better, finishing on an impressive 2.0923 on Friday evening.
Finally let’s see whether the Australian dollar could replicate this result. Our opening rate here was 1.5708, and the British pound did well on day one of the new week by reaching 1.5830 at the end of the day. We even got close to the 1.60 level midweek as we reached 1.5996, but eventually Friday closed out with 1.5965 at the end of the day.
Notable events in the world of currency
Good news against the Canadian dollar
The pound went from 1.6175 to an impressive 1.6255 over the course of last week on the currency markets.
Not such good news against the Swiss franc
Here the other currency did better, forcing us back from 1.4425 to 1.4316 as a result.
Another drop against the Chinese currency
It obviously wasn’t a good week for the British pound last week, as we fell from 10.054 to 9.850 against the Chinese yuan as well.
News of the Euro was still buzzing around last week, as this FT.com news story attests. Fears over the scale of debt in various European countries were not doing the currency any good, and it is still thought that there is a very real chance that the currency might fail. Some doubt whether it will even be in existence by the time Christmas arrives. Since this is only some four weeks away now, this is a stark warning against the severity of the problems in Europe.
The pound did not have a great week all round, but it did see one or two reasonable results overall. However the pound is not under the same degree of pressure as the Euro is, so we can only hope that it improves its standing next week. As we edge ever closer to the end of the year, one wonders whether we will still be writing this report with reference to the Euro in the near future. If it does fail, we shall be here to report on it as soon as it happens.
I do wonder how many more of these reports will feature the single currency, the Euro. It has reached the point where news coming from Europe has made we wonder whether each day will be the one where I hear about the failure of this currency. I’m sure I read the other day that someone gave the currency a one in two chance of still being here at Christmas. Can you imagine if that were true?
I am thinking the same thing. Although I have to say it does look as if it will last until Christmas at least. Not too sure about the New Year though. It seems impossible to imagine it would still be here in a matter of months. I think the more people do to try and keep it to save face, the worse it will be for us all in the long run. I hope we see the back of the dreadful thing.