Another week has gone by, which means it is time to see whether the British pound has had a good or a bad week against a variety of other currencies. Will we have good or bad news to share with you as a result?
An overview of the currency markets for August 13th – August 17th 2012
When we last left the British pound it was worth 1.5598 against the US dollar. The new week had a good start when this rate was improved to 1.5695. But this would not be the best rate of the week – we were only just getting started. The following day we pushed up to close on 1.5715, before dropping slightly the next day. The best news was yet to come though, because we managed to improve again to finish the week on an impressive 1.5712.
Could we put in an equally good performance against the Euro though? Let’s see, as we start on 1.2721 for the week. From the very beginning it was clear we wouldn’t have as good a time as we’d had against the dollar, because we struggled to finish on 1.2720 on day one. The following day this crept up to 1.2722, so it became obvious that this was a very different battle. Indeed by Friday evening the pound finished on 1.2736, so although we were slightly better off it wasn’t as pronounced as the stand against the US dollar had been.
Let’s move on to the Hong Kong dollar now, where we started on 12.100. The next day this had improved to 12.175, so things were looking up. Indeed things got better still as the pound pushed up to close out Tuesday evening on 12.189. As it turned out this was the best rate of the week, although we still managed to finish on 12.186 on Friday night.
Onto the New Zealand dollar now, where the pound closed the previous week on 1.9287. Things were looking up at an early stage as the pound closed Monday evening on 1.9341. But this would not be the highest rate of the whole week, and there was better news to come. By the time the week was over the pound would be worth 1.9488, putting on around two cents since the beginning of the week.
So can we close out a good week by performing well against the Australian dollar as well? It looks as though we can, because the opening rate of 1.4833 went up to 1.4921 just forty eight hours into the week. There was better news to come too, because by the time the week was up we were sitting pretty on an impressive 1.5065.
Notable events in the world of currency
Good news against the Canadian dollar too
The pound had a good week in many quarters last week, climbing from 1.5509 to 1.5532 against the Canadian dollar for starters.
A small increase against the Swiss franc as well
Here there was more good news as the pound rose from 1.5276 to 1.5297.
And another success against the Icelandic krona
Here the pound did even better, rising from 186.419 to 187.365 over the course of the week.
The week began with an interesting story on the Bloomberg website concerning the British pound. It started the week with a tough time against the Euro, and this particular news story gave the reasons why this was the case.
So where will the pound go from here? It has had a successful week of it thus far, but will this performance continue in kind in the weeks to come? We know now that nothing is certain and one good week could equally be followed by a poor one. We shall see, and we shall certainly keep an eye on the pound to ascertain whether or not the good news will continue. Make sure you return next week to find out whether the pound has continued in a good vein or not.
I just wonder whether all these ups and downs are telling us anything about the future of the Euro. You wait – Greece will default, Ireland and Spain will probably follow and I’m guessing the Euro will nosedive. Then the pound will be worth more, yes?
I’m tempted to think the same, yes. It’s interesting how a few months ago (or even weeks, really) the politicians like Angela Merkel were saying Greece couldn’t possibly default, now she’s singing a different tune altogether. But they still won’t admit they’ve made a huge mess of things. The arrogance of these people is incredible, and they’re supposed to be running a democracy! Maybe someone should buy them a dictionary…
The Euro will certainly go under sooner or later. The question is whether we will all go down with it. I might be in the UK but I’m not daft enough to assume we wouldn’t be affected by it.