Pound weaker amid continued political upheaval

Pound weaker amid continued political upheaval

Story link: Pound weaker amid continued political upheaval

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The pound weakened during the day Monday on new calls for UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown to resign after his ruling Labour Party received just 15.7 percent of the votes in last week’s European Union elections.

It was the first time since 1918 that Labour lost to Conservatives in Wales.

Also hurting the pound, which nevertheless managed to regain some ground against the greenback and the yen in late morning trade in New York, was comments by former Bank of England official David Blanchflower that the Bank could print more money to buy more assets in an effort to stabilize the UK economy.

Mr. Blanchflower made his remarks in a television interview.

At nearly 11:30 a.m. in New York, the pound was stronger versus the shared currency as it traded at 86.87p to the euro while it took $1.5974 or ¥157.3163 to buy a pound.

The US dollar was stronger versus the euro on the possibility that the Federal Reserve will hike interest rates by the end of the year while the yen saw gains on new data showing fewer corporate bankruptcies and after sentiment among merchants improved.

In late morning trade in New York, the dollar traded at $1.2877 to the euro while the yen traded at ¥136.39 to the euro and at ¥98.48 to the US dollar.