Another week has sped by, giving us another reason to check the currency converter to see how well the British pound has performed against the usual range of currencies. Let’s get those results right now.
An overview of the currency markets for February 20th – February 24th 2012
The closing rate for the British pound against the US dollar the previous week was 1.5833. But would it rise higher than this? Early moves on Monday saw the pound rise to 1.5860 before dropping the following day. It then sank to a disappointing 1.5671 on Wednesday, but it eventually rose to 1.5813 by Friday night. This put it marginally below the point it had started from.
But could the pound do better against the Euro? Here we had a starting point of 1.2032 but this soon dipped back to 1.1956 by Monday evening. Sometimes we get a week where the only way is down and there are no good results at all, and unfortunately this was one of those weeks. The pound finished on a sorry 1.1790 as a result.
So would it be a different picture for the Hong Kong dollar? The pound started on 12.277 before rising to 12.299 by Monday evening. Wednesday turned out to be the lowest point of the week, as the pound slid to a disappointing 12.154 by the close of play. However there were still two days left to go and by Friday the pound had recouped most of its losses, regaining the better position of 12.263 as a result.
Sometimes we see a seesaw week of results against the New Zealand dollar and this would be exactly what we would see this time around. The opening rate of 1.8926 would not seesaw by huge amounts during the week; indeed it never left the 1.88 territory except to reach to a height of 1.8937 on Tuesday. So the closing rate was 1.8890 by Friday evening.
Finally, could we do any better against the Australian dollar? The opening rate here for the pound was 1.4715 and we managed to get as high as 1.4807 two days later. However after another two days we got the lowest rate of the week – 1.4690. We did at least perk up a bit for the end of the week, finishing on 1.4756 as a result.
Notable events in the world of currency
A slight improvement against the Canadian dollar
This is a marginal improvement but an improvement nonetheless. The pound went up from 1.5753 to 1.5790 over the course of the week.
A major dip against the Swiss franc
There was bad news in store here as the pound dropped a considerable amount from 1.4538 to 1.4205 over the week.
Another drop against the Chinese yuan
Still more bad news was to come as the pound fell from 9.9704 to 9.9593 for the week.
It is clear that the pound hasn’t had the best week this time around. This was borne out by the number of headlines that focused on its position against the Euro. This one from Reuters was a typical example. The pound has dropped considerably against the single European currency, so we can only hope that it is able to improve in the near future.
Of course there is no way of telling how well or how badly the pound will do in future weeks. But while the Eurozone is still struggling it seems as if it might be able to remain the stronger of the two currencies when relating to the pound. We shall have to wait and see whether the pound gains in strength in the coming weeks, although all the signs seem to indicate that it will be struggling for some time to come, even given the precarious situation in Europe. We shall be watching as per usual to see if we have any better news to impart in next week’s report.
Another disappointing week by the look of it. I wonder whether the pound will ever have another really good week. I can remember when it garnered rates of two dollars to the pound, but it looks like those times are long gone now. Maybe I am wrong but they’re not coming back anytime soon, are they?
I think this is a bit of a pessimistic comment to be honest. Of course the pound hasn’t gone back up to its two dollar status but that won’t happen for ages. We’ve just been through a long recession – one of the worst in history I think – so we shouldn’t expect miracles straight afterwards. Hopefully things will get back to where they were in terms of the currencies eventually, but not if it is at the expense of our newfound knowledge. After all we now know where rampant commercialism will get us – precisely nowhere. We would do well to remember this and settle for a slightly weaker pound as a result.