Pound dropped to a 37-year low against dollar
Posted on September 27, 2022 |
- Sterling fell by over 1% compared to the dollar to $1.1351 at one point, which is the lowest since 1985, after the latest retail figures fell by 1.6% in August.
 - This drop came at a point when UK inflation is at a 40-year high, despite falling to 9.9% from July's 10.1% and the Bank of England predicted the UK will be into recession towards the end of this year.
 - The government declared the Energy Price Guarantee last week to help people with energy bills, which will limit the annual energy bill for a regular household to £2,500 for 2 years.
 - The drop in retail sales is since the summer of 2021 when all Covid restrictions were released, but the drop in August was the biggest month-on-month drop since December 2021.
 - The proportion of retail sales online fell to 25.7% in August, which is above pre-pandemic levels.
 - Sales of food, online, non-food, and fuel fell and supermarkets' sales volumes also fell by 0.9% but alcohol and tobacco sales grew by 6.3%.
 - In August, department stores saw a big decline of 2.7% in sales, while sales in clothing shops fell by 0.6%.