Pounds To Usd

British Pound Stagnates, Lacking Direction

The British Pound has struggled to find direction in 2011. After getting off to a solid start - rising 4% against the US dollar in less than a month - the Pound has since stagnated. At 1.625 GBP/USD ( FXB ), it is now at the same level that it was at five months ago. Given the paltry state of UK fundamentals, the fact that it still has any gains to hold on to is itself something of a miracle (click charts to expand).

The Pound's failure to make any additional headway shouldn't come as a surprise. First of all, the Pound is not a safe haven currency. That means that the only chance it has to rise is when risk is "on." Unfortunately, the Pound also scores pretty low in this regard. Annual GDP growth is currently a pathetic .5%, and is projected at only 1.8% for the entire year. Inflation is high, and both the trade balance and the current account balance are in deficit. Deficit spending has caused a surge in government debt, and there is a possibility that the UK could lose its AAA credit rating .

Investors might be willing to overlook all of this if interest rates were at an attractive level. Alas, at .5%, the Bank of England's (BOE) benchmark rate is among the lowest in the world. Moreover, it isn't expected to begin hiking rates for many months, and even then, the pace will be slow. Simply, the economy is too fragile to support a serious tightening of monetary policy. Interest rate futures reflect a consensus expectation that rates will be only 75 basis points higher one year from now.

If that's the case, why hasn't the Pound crashed entirely? To be fair, the Pound is losing ground against both the euro and the franc, the former of which has it bested on economic grounds while the latter is cashing in on its status as a safe haven currency. On the other hand, the Pound is still up for the year against the US dollar and Japanese Yen, both of which are also safe haven currencies.

It could be the case that the Pound is simply not the ugliest currency, since all of the charges that can be leveled against it can similarly be leveled against the dollar. Head-to-head, it's actually quite possible that the Pound still wins, if only because its interest rates are slightly higher than the US. Or, it could be the case that investors still believe the BOE will come around and begin hiking rates. After all, at the beginning of the year (when by no coincidence, the Pound was still rising), expectations were that the BOE would have already hiked twice by this time, bringing the benchmark to a level that would make the Pound attractive to carry traders. While the BOE hasn't followed through, carry traders may be sticking around, since the opportunity cost of holding the Pound is basically nil.

Convert Pounds Sterling (GBP) and United States Dollars (USD ...

Pound Sterling is the currency in Channel Islands (Aldernay, Guernsey, Jersey, Sark), Isle of Man, and United Kingdom (England, Great Britain, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, UK, GB, GBR). Pound Sterling is also known as the British Pound, the United Kingdom Pound, UKP, STG, the English Pound, British Pound Sterling, BPS, and Sterlings. The symbol for GBP can be written £. Pound Sterling is divided into 100 pence. The exchange rate for the Pound Sterling was last updated on

The United States Dollar is the currency in American Samoa (AS, ASM), British Virgin Islands (VG, VGB, BVI), El Salvador (SV, SLV), Guam (GU, GUM), Marshall Islands (MH, MHL), Micronesia (Federated States of Micronesia, FM, FSM), Northern Mariana Islands (MP, MNP), Palau (PW, PLW), Puerto Rico (PR, PRI), United States (United States of America, US, USA), Turks and Caicos Islands (TC, TCA), Virgin Islands (VI, VIR), Timor-Leste, Ecuador (EC, ECU), Johnston Island, Midway Islands, and Wake Island. The United States Dollar is also known as the American Dollar, and the US Dollar. The symbol for USD can be written $. The United States Dollar is divided into 100 cents. The exchange rate for the United States Dollar was last updated on Significant Figures

Conversion factors generally have six significant figures, but some may have as few as three. Please see the sources page for information about how many significant figures each factor actually has . The number of significant figures in the result will depend on the number of significant figures in the input and in the conversion factors. (Entering 2.00 GBP will give more accurate results than entering 2 GBP.) If significant figures are not used for rounding the results may have more significant digits than the input or conversion factor.

The results are rounded to the nearest amount that can be expressed in coins and notes. For example, US Dollars are rounded to the penny and New Zealand Dollars are rounded to the nearest ten cents.

I find the listing of locations used somewhat confusing. For instance, the four places listed in the following sentence all refer to the same country. "The United States Dollar is used in The US, The USA, The United States, and The United States of America." I am pleased to see the various names for a country, but the display leaves it unclear when a currency is used in a variety of countries, like the Euro, or in a single one, like the US dollar.

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