Here we go again with another journey through the currency converter information gleaned from the past week. Will the British pound do well this time around or not?
An overview of the currency markets for February 6th – February 10th 2012
The last time we looked to see how the pound was doing against the US dollar, it was sitting on 1.5813. The new week saw an immediate drop to 1.5749, but it then perked up a little and climbed to 1.5897 by Wednesday. Unfortunately it would get no better than that and by the time the week was up the exchange rate had dropped back to 1.5770 again.
Let’s move over to the Euro now to see if sterling would have any better luck there. We opened with a rate of 1.2016 and the bad news for us was that just one day later we would see the best rate of the entire week. This was 1.2075, but from there things went downhill. The week long low point was 1.1952 but this was on Thursday night; by Friday there was some small improvement to 1.1957.
Our third stop is the Hong Kong dollar, where we began on 12.264. Would we see a similar up and down pattern here? We dropped to 12.212 on Monday evening, but Tuesday looked more promising on 12.247. The best rate of the week came on Wednesday, when the pound pushed to get a rate of 12.327. But by Friday it had lost all momentum and slid back to 12.232 as a result.
But could it do better against the New Zealand dollar? We started from a position of 1.9020 and things didn’t look too good as we saw nothing but losses for the first three days. Were we going into freefall? Thursday seemed to turn things around as we rose to 1.8999 again, and Friday saw the best rate of the week with 1.9069 on the cards.
So that was a good result in the end, but would it be mirrored in Australia? We started at 1.4793 here, and our lowest point of the week came on Tuesday with a rate of 1.4648. We then enjoyed an impressive rise in exchange rates that left us on 1.4804 by Friday evening.
Notable events in the world of currency
A small drop against the Canadian dollar
Here we dropped a little from 1.5848 to 1.5813 over the week as a whole, so not too bad a performance in this case.
A similar pattern against the Swiss franc
There was little change here as the pound dropped from 1.4479 to 1.4466 over the week.
Three out of three for the pound against the Chinese yuan
It clearly wasn’t the best week for the British pound as it fell from 9.9786 to 9.9262, although it did achieve a high of 10.014 during the week.
The situation in Greece overshadowed many other currency stories last week, as the country tried to pass austerity measures that would ensure they received help from Europe. The uncertainty over their position within the Euro was hitting the headlines, but other currencies including the British pound also had some headlines to hit. This story from the Reuters website made it clear that while the pound didn’t make any major gains, it did manage to hang onto a reasonable position in the market.
So the major question now is whether the pound will stay bobbing up and down on the currency market or whether it can start to achieve better results. The uncertainty in Europe is dragging on and it looks to have no end in sight at present. However the news that Britain will avoid a double dip recession has just hit the headlines, meaning that sterling could benefit as a result. We can only wait and see if this is indeed the case.
I read the news this morning and apparently Greece still hasn’t figured out what they’re going to do about the austerity measures. No one wants them but the country will go bankrupt without them. If they don’t pass measures that look good to the Eurozone, they won’t get the cash they need to stave off bankruptcy. The whole thing is a mess and I can’t help but think if people hadn’t been so lax with the single currency in the first place, this wouldn’t have happened.
I read the other day that the EU has finally come to an agreement with Greece to bail them out to the tune of billions of Euros. I really hate this situation but it’s the poor Greeks I feel for – the ordinary people in the street. Many have said that the cash will stave off bankruptcy for a while, but it’s like whacking a plaster on a pouring wound. It will only delay the inevitable and we’ll all lose billions in cash just to try and let the EU cronies save face. I hate it!