Welcome back to another currency report that allows us to see whether the British pound has made any progress against the major currencies during the past week. This time we’re bridging the gap between February and March, so let’s see what happened.
An overview of the currency markets for February 27th – March 2nd 2012
The last time we caught up with the British pound against the US dollar, it was worth 1.5813. But could it edge higher to the 1.60 rate this week? There were marginal gains over the first two days that took the pound to 1.5867 by Tuesday evening. Wednesday was even better as it rose to 1.5929 on the currency converter. The peak however came a day early, as the pound garnered a rate of 1.5944 on Thursday evening, before falling back to 1.5872 on Friday night.
Moving onto the Euro, you may remember the pound gaining a rate of 1.1790 to close out the previous week. This immediately jumped to 1.1834 on the 27th, although it fell back once again the following day to 1.1793. There was better news in store though as the pound soared back to 1.1849. In fact this was the beginning of a good run for the currency that ended the week on 1.2009 as a result.
Let’s take a look at what happened against the Hong Kong dollar now. A starting rate of 12.263 moved steadily in the right direction for us for the first few days of the week. By Wednesday we were garnering a rate of 12.353. This went one better the following day – reaching 12.366 – before dropping slightly to finish the week on 12.315.
Our next stop is the New Zealand dollar, where the pound was starting from the position of 1.8890. This improved to 1.8989 the next day, and despite a drop to 1.8843 by Wednesday, the pound still managed to close out the week on 1.9035.
But could it do the same in Australia? Our opening rate here was 1.4756 and we did well on Monday to reach 1.4830. But we then sank back down to the 1.47 rate for the remainder of the week. This meant we ended up closing out the week on an exchange rate of 1.4727.
Notable events in the world of currency
A loss against the Canadian dollar
We didn’t do particularly well here as we started on 1.5790 and sank back to 1.5664 by the time Friday night arrived.
A considerably better performance against the Swiss franc
It wasn’t all bad news last week though, as we climbed steadily from 1.4205 to 1.4485 against the Swiss franc.
Another steady climb against the Icelandic krona
Here the pound performed exceptionally well, taking it from the opening rate of 195.599 to the much better 199.196.
The Euro appeared to be doing well against the Japanese yen last week, as this story shows. The Australian dollar was also seen to do well against the US dollar. According to reports consumer spending in Australia seems to be on the up, which has contributed to the better value of the Australian dollar.
So it was an interesting week for the British pound and not a bad one either. It has done well against several currencies and while it was not a completely good week there were enough good results to warrant some celebration. The question now is whether this can be stretched beyond one week, or whether the pound will dip back again next week and go into old territory again. We shall have to wait and see how things pan out. It could be that the pound is able to improve its position and give us some even better exchange rates next week.
Of course this is mere speculation – the facts will come in due time, and we shall be here to present them to you.