The pound is now at a 26 year high against the dollar. At the moment £1 is worth $2.08. The strong pound is not good news for those of us who live in the States and travel regularly to the UK. Happily, we have already bought our plane tickets for Christmas, and paid for our hired car, but at this rate, shopping in England is going to be a very expensive business. Here's the BBC's article:
Pound powers past weaker dollar
The pound and euro strengthened their positions against the US dollar, with sterling once again rising to its highest levels since 1981.
The gains were fuelled by the Federal Reserve's decision to trim US interest rates for a second time in two months.
The pound rose to a 26-year high of $2.08, while the euro touched $1.45 - its highest point since its 1999 debut . . .
4 comments:
Such does not bode very well for us, as my wife and I are hoping to move to England next year so that I can begin PhD studies.
In light of your post, the best case scenario would be either mysteriously winning the lottery or a leveling out/lessening of the exchange rate.
Thanks for the heads-up on this.
allowing the dollar to sink so low really doesn't much economic sense but it seems the US Government is quite content for this happen. Its a boom time for foreign investors, like UK companies, as it is making buying US companies so cheap.
I am going to the UK in exactly 4 wks time for 12 days to celebrate my parents 50th anniversary. I think I will be doing all my gift buying here and only buying the neccesary in the UK. Fortunately we still have a bank account in the UK, so can avoid the exchange rate as much as possible.
On the other hand - it is brilliant if you live in England, and buy the occasional item from the USA - like a second hand book on Abebooks - or from antiquarian book dealers.
A 26-year high is nothing to sneeze at, but here in Canada things are even stranger: The Canadian dollar closed at a 50-year high against the American dollar yesterday, and for a brief moment it was trading at a 130-year high (give or take). As you say, this is not good news for non-Americans who make a substantial part of their income from America. It was only five years ago that US$100 translated to over CDN$150. But yesterday it got me only CDN$93. Sigh.
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