Sterling
Warning from Bank of England over euro timetable
UK - Ministers must not be tempted into shortening the timetable for scrapping the pound if Britain votes to join the euro, the Bank of England has warned.
Bank of England Report
REPORT - The Bank of England's Operations in the Sterling Money Markets, 16 May.
Welteke - Pound must fall before euro entry
GERMANY - The president of the Bundesbank, Ernst Welteke, has said he thinks the pound would have to be devalued before Britain could join the single currency.
Keep floating, stop worrying
FEATURE - The real case for an independent pound has nothing to do with ultra-nationalism or hostility to Europe writes Samuel Brittan in Thursday's Financial Times. He suggests the British government allow use of the euro as a parallel currency and…
Wadhwani - Current high interest rate policy risky
UK - Rising household debt and the possibility of a depreciation in sterling's exchange rate aren't sufficient grounds to keep interest rates higher than necessary, said one of the Bank of England's nine interest-rate setters Monday.
BofE George warns of possible threat to inflation
UK - Sir Edward George, the governor of the Bank of England, has warned of the risk that the economy will slow further at the same time as the pound falls, putting upward pressure on inflation.
Punt passes away quietly
IRELAND - The Irish pound ceased to be legal tender from midnight on Saturday as Ireland became the second country within the eurozone - after the Netherlands - to ditch its old notes and coins.
Bank of England official: 'Leave pound alone'
UK - A senior Bank of England official has warned against artificially reducing the value of the pound.
Sterling may not have to enter ERM to join euro
UK - Brussels has smoothed the path to British entry to the euro, by suggesting that sterling might not have first to rejoin the Exchange Rate Mechanism for two years.
Egyptian central bank cancels import restrictions
EGYPT - The Central Bank of Egypt said Monday it had cancelled import restriction proposals that were designed to protect the declining Egyptian pound and boost the sluggish economy.
BoE Plenderleith comments on sterling bond market
SPEECH - In a speech to a conference organised by the Association of British Insurers on Apr 2, 2001, Ian Plenderleith, executive director of the Bank of England and a member of the Monetary Policy Committee, reviews developments in the sterling non-gilt…
New Egypt forex peg only valid as short-term fix
Egypt's introduction of a "managed peg" for pound-dollar rates may restore exchange rate stability in the short term but will be unsustainable and counterproductive in the long term, analysts said on Jan. 29, 2001. Under the new system the central bank…
Egypt to value pound vs currency basket eventually
Egypt's Economy and Foreign Trade Minister Youssef Boutros-Ghali said on Jan. 29 the Egyptian pound would eventually be valued against a basket of currencies, rather than the dollar as now."We are waiting to move to a basket of currencies when the time…
Investors await Eqypt's exchange rate policy
Domestic and foreign investors in Egypt are waiting for some sign from the monetary authorities on a new exchange rate policy nearly two months after the country abandoned a long-standing fixed peg against the dollar.