British Pound Continues to Slide
The British pound continued its record-breaking slide Friday, falling below $1.12 despite attempts to prop it up.
The dollar put in a mixed performance but finished the day higher against major foreign currencies.
Gold prices, meanwhile, flip-flopped around the $300 level, ending the day below it. Bullion was bid at $299.25 in late trading at Republic National Bank, down $3.65 from Thursday.
The pound sank to $1.1190 in the United States, compared to $1.1260 in the previous session. Earlier, in London, sterling fell to an all-time trading low of $1.1230 even after Britain’s four major banks raised their base lending rates by about 1 percentage point to 10 1/2%. Then, the pound rose to $1.1270 but was still down from the low of $1.1330 on Thursday.
A London bookmaker offered 6-4 odds that the pound will hit parity with the dollar in February.
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