Currency report

Press, 1 September 1980, Page 28

Currency report

The United States dollar dipped in a late burst of profit-taking, after trading quietly for most of the week; the unit weakened despite several major United States banks raising their prime rates from 11.25 per cent to 11.50 per cent, according to the weekly foreign exchange report from the Bank of New South Wales.

Sterling soared to its highest level for 5 years against other major currencies despite deepening industrial recession in Britain that pushed unemployment above 2 million for the first time since 1936.

The pound’s trade-weigh-ted index rose to 76.2 per cent of its 1971 value. This

is the highest since early 1975. '

The pound appeared to be shrugging off Britain’s econnomic problem because of the country’s North Sea oil wealth, boosted by a new discovery last week. The Japanese yen finned to. a six-week high against the United States dollar. The yen’s firmness was the result of some Middle Eastern buying of the currency, coupled with a belated reaction to the news that the Japanese trade balance on a customs : clearance basis moved? into a surplus of $93.9 million in the first 10 days of August, from a $228.5 million deficit in the same Julyi period. .