THE pound has achieved its highest level against a basket of currencies for nearly seven years, boosted by a belief that a rise in UK interest rates might come slightly earlier than had been thought.
Analysts also said that sterling was being supported by the perception that it was a safe-haven currency, amid fears that Greece might exit the eurozone.
The euro fell against the pound, as worries over the position of Greece continued. Thousands of the country's people have taken to the streets of Athens this week to oppose austerity.
Sterling climbed to 93.4 on its trade-weighted index against a basket of currencies. This is the pound's highest level on this measure since July 2008.
At 5pm, the euro was trading around 71.4p, down 0.38p on its Thursday close in London.
The pound was little changed on the session against the US currency, trading around $1.5877 at 5pm.
Sterling has climbed sharply against the dollar recently, from about $1.52 at the start of this month. The dollar has been weighed down this week, with the Federal Reserve not giving the clear signal that some had expected on the likely timing of a rise in US interest rates.
Firmer UK wage growth and slightly less dovish signals from the Bank of England have meanwhile prompted financial markets to price in the first rise in UK base rates from their record low of 0.5 per cent in about nine months' time. They had earlier this week been signalling an expectation that the first increase in UK rates was about a year away.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article