Could it finally be true? After months of seeing the British pound go on a seemingly unstoppable slide, it finally looks as if it is clawing its way back up and claiming something of a victory.
According to the Bloomberg website, the pound has actually enjoyed the kind of heights that it hasn’t seen for months when it comes to the US dollar. There was a time when we dipped well below the $1.50 mark, and for a while it looked as if we would never get back above it.
But we have – and it will be fascinating to see whether we can stay there, or whether we might be celebrating this good fortune a little bit too early.
Firstly you can read the Bloomberg story by going to their website through this link. With that done, let’s take a closer look at the actual figures to see what has happened.
We’ll choose the 16th April as a starting point here, as this is where it gets interesting! The final rate against the dollar on that day was 1.4900, but we went into the weekend the next day on a lower rate of 1.4791. It seemed at this point as if we would never get up as far as the $1.50 rate again. We would get tantalisingly close, and then drop back again.
This was borne out by the fact that the following Monday ended with an exchange rate of 1.4575 – a rate that put us even further away from that target. Anyone thinking they were within sight of a better exchange rate on their currency converter would have been disappointed at this point in time.
But the pound started to climb up again on the 24th April, when it reached 1.4604. But once again it fell back into the 1.45 region at the start of the next week, before managing to bag a 1.4760 exchange rate at the mid-week point. Could we finally be getting closer to the $1.50 level again?
As the week beginning the 4th of May got started, we saw an exchange rate of 1.4862 to close out the day. This was all getting rather exciting now, as the British pound finally looked like it had some fight in it. This makes a nice change to the many months we have seemingly endured the US dollar walking all over it.
But if we thought there was still an awful lot of work to be done here, we were mistaken. The very next day gave us what we had been looking for – and more besides. The final exchange rate between the pound and the US dollar on that day was an incredible 1.5129. ‘Incredible’ may be too strong a word – but we don’t think so, not after the amount of time it has taken the pound to cross that barrier.
And the better news is that the British pound has managed to stay above the $1.50 barrier ever since, at least up until the time of writing on the 12th May. It has fluctuated between $1.50 and $1.51, but it is still quite happily sitting in that region.
And long may it continue. But now we are there, it will be fascinating to see if we can stay there.
Fascinating maybe, but it won’t happen. The US dollar is far stronger than the British pound and it has been for months. Maybe when we get out of this recession we’re in, the pound will be worth more again. But until then nothing is going to happen for the long term.
Trust me, this is a blip – it might be nice for the pound now, but don’t hold your breath that things will stay that way. The US dollar is too strong to keep down for long! I could be wrong, but somehow I don’t think I am. Enjoy the stronger pound while it lasts!
I don’t agree. I think that is a very pessimistic view to take. The pound is doing well at the moment and yes we should be enjoying that – but why shouldn’t it last for a while longer? It might take ages to get back to being worth two dollars, but it will in time.
Let’s not forget that the US is in the middle of this recession as well, and since people think that the worst has happened already maybe the UK will experience an upswing? We can but hope for the best – negativity gets you nowhere!
The pound has done better already. I agree with Kate, I think we have to be positive and remember where the pound was a year or so ago. The two dollar pound could yet make a comeback!
Everyone is always very doom and gloom and that doesn’t help at all. I know the pound won’t gain any ground automatically if we all think positively, but it won’t help if we write it off either. And the pound has been doing better in the last couple of weeks too. Maybe there is more on the way? It will be interesting to keep watching…