The British pound has always had something of a hard time against the US dollar – or at least that is the way it seems. So how did it get on during March, having had a particularly rough time in recent months?
The starting rate was 1.5201 but after just twenty four hours the pound had already had the worst possible start to the month. It ended up on 1.4916 on the 1st March. Could this foretell a bad month ahead, or was there more to this story against the US dollar than met the eye?
It managed to get back above the $1.50 mark a couple of days later by achieving a rate of 1.5061. This increased to 1.5102 the following day but then the pound dropped back to close out the week on the currency converter by registering a result of 1.5049.
But once again the following week was a story of highs and lows, as the pound dipped down to a low of 1.4933. Could it pull its socks up to finish the week on a better rate, or was this going to be the story of the whole month?
The last rate of that particular week was better, as the pound managed to settle on 1.5154. But we had the feeling that things were not necessarily starting to swing round in favour of the pound. It would just depend on which currency was doing better at any one time.
And indeed this was the case for the next week. The lowest point for the British pound was an exchange rate of 1.5052 against the US dollar. But just two days later it managed to pick up a much better rate of 1.5349. But as always we were not confident that the currency could hang onto that rate and make the most of it. Could we hope to do better and keep going in the right direction at all?
That particular week ended with the pound on 1.5145. And by the end of the first day of trading the following week, we had slid way back to just 1.4984. This was clearly going to be an uphill battle for the pound, and there was no way we could ever hope to do better as a result. Indeed by the time that week came to a sorry end, the pound could only muster up the strength to garner a rate of 1.4830. It almost seemed as if we were very likely to end up below the $1.50 rate as the month ended.
But the British pound wasn’t quite done yet. By the time the pound had got through the remaining three days of trading it had managed to increase its standing on every one of those three days. And this meant the final figure for March was actually 1.5148. So while we were lower than we had started the month, we were at least a lot better off than we could have been.
I had to comment on this report because it shows the British pound isn’t always as badly off as we might think sometimes!
I tend to look on the pound very pessimistically at the moment. I’m not sure why – we do get bad results sometimes and we always have a tough time against the US dollar.
But this monthly report has shown that while individual weeks may not be that good, when you step back and look at the month as a whole you might be surprised by what you see. I know I was. I sat down to read this fully expecting a raft of bad results, but that wasn’t what we got in the end. I stand corrected, and I hope it gets better still.
The pound is at its lowest since this post, at a 1.39 after dropping from 1.40 within a space of a few hours.