Pound sterling

Sudan is to devalue the Sudanese pound to 18 per dollar in January from the current 6.7, the finance minister said on Dec. 26, after the IMF called for it to let the currency float freely to encourage foreign investment in the country.

Police have detained three suspects in the southern Turkish province of Adana during an operation against historic coin smugglers. However, the seized material, which included pound coins featuring the figure of Queen Victoria, turned out to be fake.

London's World Travel Market this month offered some fresh positive signs regarding British visitors to Greece next year.

The Bank of England on July 18 unveiled a new bank note featuring Jane Austen to coincide with the author's death 200 years ago after a campaign to include more women on Britain's currency.

The new note worth ten pounds ($13, 11.3 euros) and made of polymer instead of paper will enter circulation in September.

The International Monetary Fund has approved a second tranche of a $12 billion loan to Egypt, praising the country's tough economic reforms that have fuelled inflation.

In a statement on July 13, IMF managing director Christine Lagarde said the approval of the roughly $1.25 billion tranche showed "the IMF's strong support for Egypt in these efforts."   

The Egyptian pound is trading in banks at around 16 to the dollar, down from the 13-pound peg the Central Bank set as a guiding exchange rate when it floated the currency last week.

Banks were selling the U.S. currency at 16 pounds while buying it at around 15.5 pounds on Nov. 6, the first full business day in Egypt since the Central Bank floated the currency on Nov. 3. 

In the aftermath of the referendum result, most financial experts slashed their growth expectations for the UK dramatically, with many forecasting an outright contraction in GDP for two quarters - a technical recession. The immediate signs were indeed pointing to troublesome economic times ahead. The British pound tumbled against the US dollar to its lowest level since 1985.

The Chinese yuan officially joined the USD, the Euro, the Japanese Yen and the British Pound Sterling as a global reserve currency.

This is an extremely important moment for Beijing in securing greater influence on the international stage, reported Reuters.

Bulgaria's Black Sea resort of Sunny Beach remains the best value-for-money holiday destination for British tourists in 2016 for the third straight year, a new survey has shown.

"Cheap local prices in the 10 best value resorts in Europe have cushioned the impact of sterling's slide," the 10th annual UK Post Office Travel Money Holiday Costs Barometer has found.

The pound plunged on Feb. 22 on worries that Britain may vote to leave the European Union this year, while the euro fell sharply against the dollar after poor eurozone economic data.