It’s time once again to see how the British pound has done on the currency markets. Would it stand tall on the currency converter or have lots of hard work to do instead?
An overview of the currency markets for March 5th – March 9th 2012
When the week opened against the US dollar, the pound was standing at 1.5872. But this would turn out to be a week where the first few days went nowhere but down. Monday ended on 1.5838 and Tuesday was even worse as it dipped back to 1.5798. The low point came on Wednesday, but the week finally finished up slightly better as the pound ground to a halt on a slightly improved 1.5789.
Next up we can see whether the Euro was a good match for the pound or not. It started on 1.2009 and once again the pound dropped immediately on day one, falling to 1.1981. It turned out to be an up and down few days with a highlight of 1.2011 in the middle, followed by a finishing rate of 1.1923 at the end of the week. Not the best rate for the pound, but it could have been worse.
Now we come to the Hong Kong dollar, where the pound opened on 12.315. Again day one did not prove to be full of good news. Here the pound fell back to 12.295. It seemed as if the pound had little to show for itself during the first half of the week, but fortunately it managed to improve its standing by the time the week came to an end. By this time it was doing slightly better on 12.248, although it was still down on the start of the week, so the pound wasn’t having the best round of results.
An opening rate of 1.9035 was the starting point for the pound against the New Zealand dollar, and once again we were treated to an up and down week. But the picture was different here, because by the time we reached the 6th, the pound was standing at 1.9398. Could it do better to close out the week? Apparently not, because the pound ended up on 1.9131 by the time the week was up.
Finally let’s see whether the Australian dollar would be the best currency of the week for the pound to rally against. The opening rate was 1.4727 and once again it went up considerably to 1.4915 just two days later. This was following the pattern set by the New Zealand dollar, so perhaps it was not a surprise that the pound dipped again to close out the week on 1.4834.
Notable events in the world of currency
A slight improvement against the Canadian dollar
Here the pound crept up from 1.5664 to 1.5713 as the week went on.
But not such good news against the Swiss franc
Here the pound fell from 1.4485 to 1.4368 as the week went on. Clearly there were very few pieces of good news for the pound last week.
Another drop against the Chinese currency too
It was not a good week here either, as the pound fell back to 9.9760 by the end of the week.
There were plenty of news stories doing the rounds last week about the state of the British pound. One such story was reported at Reuters as the pound dropped following the news about the situation in Greece and its position in the Euro. However the pound did manage to rise slightly against the US dollar, so all was not lost in this sense.
As we can see this was not the best week for the pound. Perhaps we can hope for better next week, although we still have a long way to go before we can bring you much better news about the state of the currency.
Does anyone know whether the pound has ever gone through a prolonged period of time where it has been in the doldrums like this? I know it dipped down to below $1.40 against the dollar a while back, but it used to be worth a couple of dollars against the currency. I just wonder whether the pound will ever get back to that level again, or traditionally how long it takes a currency to regain its footing after dropping from that high level. Does this have something to do with the recession we all went through, and apparently we are still going through?
It could have something to do with the recession; I can’t remember when the pound first started dipping against the dollar but it must be two or three years ago now, surely? As things stand now I can’t imagine the pound getting back to that level for years. It’s good for people working for clients in the US who pay in dollars though; the exchange rate is better that way around.