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The pound has struggled against lots of different currencies over the past year or more, and that is why it is interesting to focus in on a few select ones from time to time to see whether that pattern has changed.

As far as currency news is concerned, and how it affects economies in different countries, the British pound has been in the news a lot lately.

Now obviously the Bank of England base rate has reached a historically low level since the recession first got underway. At the present time it is set at just 0.5%. If you glance through that list you will see that the highest rate was a whopping 17%, back in mid November 1979. Having a rate of just 0.5% must have seemed unthinkable to anyone trying to pay a mortgage and keep their house going back then.

If you have been keeping an eye on the exchange rates between the Euro and the British pound lately, you will know that the pound has been having a tough time of things. The currency converters will show you that in actual fact there isn’t too much room between the two, with one pound equating to around 1.0714 Euros at the time of writing.

One of the key exchange rates that many people look at on their currency converters is the one between the British pound and the US dollar. And at the moment the good news is all on the side of the US dollar.

The latest news reports have shown that inflation has taken another nosedive. But while that may have been expected, it wasn’t assumed that it would fall as far as it did.

Therein lies a question that many of us suspect we already know the answer to. In reality we are looking at a much bigger deficit nationally than we have seen in years. The current government believes they are doing the right thing in trying to get the country back on its feet after the effects of the recession.

The pound has been having a tough time against the Euro for some time now. Short term gains haven’t been around for very long, with the British pound struggling to maintain any kind of authority over the European single currency.

Way back in April last year, the interest rate as set by the Bank of England was 5%. But since then it has dropped and dropped, and kept on going in that direction.

Where do you go to change your UK money up into the currency you need for that holiday or weekend trip away? Do you head down to your local post office? Do you do it at your travel agent? Is there somewhere else locally that you always head to when another currency is needed?