Why has the GBP Collapsed to record lows?

It hasn’t been a good Monday morning for some investors or English travelers who wish to sell the GBP to go abroad, as the Sterling Pound has collapsed to record lows to bring almost perfect parity with the U.S Dollar at 1 GBP equals $1.09. Sterling fell to the lowest level in 37 years, trading below the $1.09 following the rate increase.

The cause to fight against inflation was always going to bring unwanted consequences to countries’ currencies and economies. The most recent example has been the effect on the GBP after the Bank of England announced a rate hike of 0.5% to lift current interest rates from 1.75% to 2.25%, the biggest since 2008.

It is compounded by the U.S Dollar recent record heights, it comes as the greenback surged to a fresh 20-year high against its peers after the Federal Open Market Committee lifted its key rate by 0.75 percentage points for the third time in a row and projected further increases in borrowing costs in an effort to tame inflation.

America’s strategy is different by the fact they want to keep unemployment low, at the same time of attacking inflation, this is different from the BoJ, Bank of England whose sole purpose is to keep inflation at around the 2% level.

The cost of UK government borrowing rose by the most in a single day for at least a decade, while the currency meltdown fueled speculation the Bank of England would be forced to launch an emergency rate rise to mend the UK’s battered credibility with global investors. The UK government borrowed £11.8bn last month, almost twice as much as the Treasury’s independent forecaster had expected, as high inflation pushed interest payments to an August record.

Below is a snapshot of the currency at the time of writing 3:07pm on Monday 26^th of September 2022.

And they aren’t many who believe the UK’s crisis is going to improve. Big banks such as The US investment bank JPMorgan said it exposed “a broader loss of investor confidence in the government’s approach,” while Citi said the chancellor’s tax giveaway, the biggest since 1972, risked “a confidence crisis in sterling”.

To conclude, it seems that the BoJ strategy in hiking interest rates its going through the rough slow growth which central bankers advised about at the Jackson Hole meeting a few weeks back and it wont be a smooth ride back up as investors are pretty spooked by the effect the hikes have had in the market and sell off of the pound has increased as the Dollar seems like a better buy given its recent rise.

Trading opportunities such as the GBP FX pairs are in focus add to this the USD who has also provided CFD traders with many opportunities the last few weeks. To create access to a Metatrader trading platform please visit us on here and activate your trading account or call us on the Melbourne office-based number 03 8566 7680. As always please do your own research and trade responsibly.

Sources: Yahoo Finance, Guardian