Exchange Rate Now!

With South Africa hosting the 2010 World Cup, it is no doubt in the travel plan of most tourist in football obsessed United Kingdom (which includes England, Scotland and Ireland). In fact, South Africa is already experiencing a boom in tourists from the United Kingdom now, one year before the World Cup even starts!

Besides the World Cup, there is another factor which may account for the rise in tourist numbers – The favourable exchange rate. The South African Rand is now trading at about 12 Rand to 1 Sterling Pound. This exchange rate is currently more favourable towards the Sterling Pounds compared to other major currencies like the Euro and US Dollar.

Some worries that the South African Rand will move to a downtrend against major global currencies (which include the Sterling Pound) once the World Cup concludes in 2010 (more…)

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…)

Before the Euro was introduced, Sterling Pounds is one of the most respected currency with its high exchange rate as well as its relative stability in Europe. Sterling Pounds is now the 3rd largest reserve currency in the world, after the US Dollar (USD) and the Euro (Eur).

Since the Euro entered into circulation in 2002, the usage of Sterling Pounds has waned a little. The Sterling Pounds (GBP) further depreciated against the Euro (EUR) during the global financial/ economic crisis in 2008 which made people wonder if UK did the right thing by opting out of the Euro when most other European nations opted in to use the Euro as the common currency.

Currently, 1 Sterling Pound (GBP) trades at 1.16 Euro (EUR).

Tough luck if you work in UK now, since you would had a relative pay cut of 20% compared to the rest of the world a year ago. Note: The pound lost 23 percent against the euro and about 26 percent against the dollar last year as the economy sank into a recession, spurring the central bank to cut the benchmark interest rate to a record low and even print money to buy government debt and other assets this year.

If you study overseas in UK however, your parents can smile at the favourable exchange rate and hope that (more…)