The pound headed for a third week of declines spurred by the Brexit vote, winning itself the title of 2016’s worst performer among major currencies.
Sterling’s rally on Friday barely dented its 2.7 percent slide versus the dollar in the preceding four days. The UK currency this week overtook the Argentine peso as the biggest loser versus the dollar among 31 major peers in 2016 as investors continued to digest the fallout from the June 23 referendum decision to leave the European Union, Bloomberg reports.
“Sterling’s going to fall considerably further as the effects of that uncertainty on investment and growth emerge from the gloom,” Kit Juckes, a macro-strategist at Societe Generale SA in London, wrote in a note to clients.
The pound rose 0.3 % to $1.2949 at 3:06 p.m. on Friday in London, leaving it down 2.4 % this week and more than % this year. It briefly erased its daily gain after a US Labor Department report showed a bigger-than-estimated jump in June payrolls.
Sterling advanced 0.5 % to 85.24 pence per euro, set for a 1.6 % weekly slide.
On Wednesday, Britain’s currency touched a 31-year low of $1.2798 after the closure of a number of property funds echoed the real-estate tremors at the start of the financial crisis in 2007. UK consumer confidence plunged the most in 21 years in a special post-referendum survey conducted from June 30 to July 5, data showed Friday.
