It’s time to see how the British pound has done against the major world currencies over the past full week. Has it achieved good results or bad? Let’s find out.
An overview of the currency markets for February 13th – February 17th 2012
The last time we caught up with the British pound, it was worth 1.5770 against the US dollar. So how would it progress in this full week? The early signs were good as it increased to 1.5800 by the end of day one. But then it turned tail and steadily fell back to 1.5670 by Thursday evening. This looked to be a disappointing week. But by the time Friday was over the pound had soared back into control with a rate of 1.5833.
Let’s see how the pound did against the Euro now. The last rate we had was 1.1957 but the initial movement was down to 1.1921. However we then did rather better during the rest of the week. The high point came on Thursday when the pound reached 1.2070, but even though it dropped to 1.2032 to close the week it was still better off than it had been to begin with.
Next let’s move on to the Hong Kong dollar. The pound started on 12.232 and then managed to climb marginally to 12.252 the following day. There was bad news to come over the following days though and by Thursday the pound was far lower on the currency converter on 12.152. But this was when it made a good comeback, finishing on an impressive high point of 12.277 for the week.
So could we repeat the same feat against the New Zealand and Australian dollars as well? Let’s start with the Kiwi currency, where the pound was last worth 1.9069. Unfortunately the first few days weren’t good for the pound. By the time Wednesday came the pound was weakened to a rate of 1.8718. Thankfully this turned out to be the lowest rate of the week as it perked up to 1.8926 by the close of the week.
Finally there is the Australian dollar to look at. Here we were starting from a rate of 1.4804 so could we improve that? The news didn’t look good as we sank back to 1.4693 by the end of day one. Furthermore we were destined to spend the rest of the week at the 1.46 level – almost, at least, as we did pull back to 1.4715 by the time the week was up. It was certainly an interesting week.
Notable events in the world of currency
A fall against the Canadian dollar
The pound started the week at 1.5813 against the Canadian dollar, but after a midweek fall it pulled back to 1.5753.
A better time against the Swiss franc
This was better as the pound went up against the Swiss currency from 1.4466 to 1.4538 over the course of the week.
An impressive rise against the Chinese currency
The pound started on 9.9262 at the beginning of the week, and rose steadily to 9.9704 by the time the week was over.
So it was an impressive performance by the British pound all in all. But it wasn’t the only currency to enjoy a better week. The Canadian currency also did reasonably well, as this story from the Bloomberg site attests.
The question now is whether this is the good part of an up and down period or whether it will last. The chances are that with the Euro in trouble and various other currencies reacting to it as well, it could simply be a good week for the pound. Hopefully the opposite will be true, but we’ll wait and see.
We can at least enjoy the process as it happens and know that the pound is at least in a better position than it would have been otherwise. Let’s hope it continues for a while at least.