Australian Dollar and Sterling Pound
While Australia is a commonwealth country, it does not share the same currency as United Kingdom. Currently, 1 British Pound/ Sterling Pound (GBP) trades at 2.065 Australian Dollar.
Note: Until 1967, the Australian dollar was pegged to the Sterling Pound. This peg was removed in 1967 when the Sterling Pound greatly depreciated against the US Dollar.
One of the low points of the British Pound came in May 2009, when it was trading at less than 2 Australian dollar. In part, this is caused by the ripple effect of global financial/ economic crisis in the last quarter of 2008. Banks in UK face collapse, which raise the doubt if the Bank of England has the ability to bailout these banks and at the same time flex the muscle to stable the Sterling Pound.
The British Pound has recovered slightly since, although it is now nowhere near the high of 1 Sterling Pound = 2.45 Australian dollar in Oct 2008. This means tourist from Australia can be smiling all the way to UK. Flights from Australia to United Kingdom is now about 30% cheaper due to favourable currency exchange rate as well as lower fuel tax on passengers.
Outside of these 2 countries however, both the Australian Dollar and the Sterling Pound (more…)
