When the year began, the British pound stood at 1.7704 against the New Zealand dollar. We remember when we could expect an exchange rate of around two dollars for each pound, so we were some way off this even at the start of the year. But which way would things develop from here?
By the end of week one, we had some answers. The pound had already dropped to 1.7598, so there was plenty still to fight for, as we had not got the best start to the year. Indeed, things did not get any better, because the second week saw four poorly-performing days out of five, taking the pound lower still. By the 13th January – which did turn out to be unlucky for us – we had dropped to 1.7078.
The question now was how much lower the pound might get. It was down to 1.6987 by the Monday of that week, which was over seven cents lower than we had begun the year on just two weeks previously. The good news was we managed to improve our position throughout the remainder of the week. This was one of those occasions when the worst news came first, and we ended up getting much better than that from that moment on. We improved steadily if a little uncertainly, by reaching 1.7196 by Friday 20th January.
We seemed to have passed a tough point, too, because the pound then improved slightly over the following week as well. The New Zealand dollar couldn’t get the better of the situation and that meant the pound finished on 1.7290 by the 28th January, as the month came closer to its end. We were still much lower than we had been at the start of the year, but it felt as if we had stemmed our losses, which could have become much worse by that point.
But much the same pattern of uncertainty and ups and downs has been witnessed ever since as well. We ended up with a better performance throughout most of the beginning of February, while still failing to regain the high point of 1.7704 we had begun the year on. Could we regain that soon? It is still too early to say. At the time of writing, we were sitting on 1.7295, with trading still to finish on 24th February to determine the closing rate for that week.
We can never tell what may happen next, and when the British pound may just perk up against the Kiwi dollar. We can be fairly certain we will not see the heights of the two-dollar pound again for some time, although we can never be entirely sure what may happen next. We shall be watching closely for the latest developments though, just in case the currency surprises us.