Welcome back to another fact packed currency report. This week we have looked at the major five currencies to see how they reacted to the usual challenge from the pound. Which currencies managed to come out on top this time?
An overview of the currency markets for February 18th – February 22nd 2013
Let us begin at our usual spot, focusing on the battle between the British pound and the US dollar. Here the pound started on 1.5486 and managed to creep up to 1.5491 by the end of the first day. It then dropped back to 1.5466 on day two, before falling continuously throughout the rest of the week. This meant the British currency ended up on a disappointing 1.5296 by the time the week was over. This didn’t bode well for the pound’s battle against the other currencies either.
So let’s move on and see how it did against the Euro instead. Here the starting point was 1.1622 and day one saw a drop to 1.1602. It was the opposite of what had occurred against the US dollar, so perhaps here we would see a better outcome. The low point came on Wednesday when the pound fell to 1.1450, but then it started making its way back up again. Eventually it finished on 1.1600 for the week, so only a marginal drop overall, which was good news.
Our third stop is with the Hong Kong dollar, where the pound began on 12.009. It enjoyed a small rise on day one but then fell back to 11.993 on day two. Here the low point came a day later than it had against the Euro, as the pound reached a rock bottom point for the week of 11.833. It did manage to perk back up to 11.864 on Friday but it was still below the rate it had started with on Monday.
Moving onto the New Zealand dollar now, we saw the pound begin the week on 1.8250. This was a reasonable starting point but it got better the following day when the pound reached higher to 1.8328. But would we see a dip from then on, as the pound struggled to maintain its position? Indeed we did, and 1.8328 turned out to be the high point of the entire week – disappointing since it was downhill from then on in. The pound eventually limped home on Friday night with a rate of 1.8254.
Our final stop is with the Australian dollar, and an opening rate of 1.4987. This had a good start too, as the pound crept up to 1.5020 on Monday evening. But again it went downhill from there and virtually copied the pattern we had seen against the Kiwi dollar. The final rate for the week was a disappointing 1.4805.
Notable events in the world of currency
A slight improvement against the Canadian dollar
Despite the poor result against the US dollar, the pound did better against the loonie. Here it improved from 1.5527 to 1.5611 over the course of the week.
But a drop occurred against the Swiss franc
There wasn’t much of a difference here, but the pound still lost ground against the Swiss franc. It fell from 1.4299 to 1.4235 during the week.
Another drop against the Icelandic krona
Here too there was bad news for the pound as it fell from 200.021 to 194.453.
So it was a sobering week in terms of the performance of the British pound. There are struggles all over the world in terms of different currencies and their battles against each other, but the pound seems to be having a bad time of it at the moment. Perhaps we can remain positive and see some better results soon, but we shall have to wait and see.
Rest assured we shall be back next week to see whether the British pound can improve in any way. Perhaps it has a long struggle ahead.