Sterling is under pressure due to BREXIT concerns - or is it?

As we watched the evening news yesterday, we were told that the pound fell, apparently linked to the concerns that Britain will leave the EU, so alarm bells were ringing across the City - and people should be worried.

In the spirit of balance and objectivity, can we just hang on a minute here?

We monitor the pound against key currencies each day as we verify freight costs as part of the freight management service for our import and export clients (most freight costs are charged in USD) and frankly I find that headline alarmist and designed to frighten people about what may happen if we leave the EU, regardless of your views.

Please let me provide some facts on Sterling over the last 6 months which you can clearly see below in the concise report we've compiled this morning, logging the exchange rate at 1 month intervals against major currencies, using the Bank Of England database as our source. 

Sterling has been far weaker than it is today, particularly in April 2016, when you can see it was weaker against the USD and the EURO which put this into a more balanced context and it also shows that Sterling is pretty resilient. On 26-Feb it actually fell to USD 1.38, 6 cents below yesterday's level.

The government also tells us that if the pound falls, we will see inflation however despite 6 months of a weak pound, there's no evidence of that in UK inflation figures, and of course a weaker pound gives our UK exporters a vital edge in a really competitive global economy. Again, our government is keen to push exports via the Exporting Is Great initiative via UKTI so can the media and government please stop pushing the Project Fear agenda and report in a much more balanced way.

Please follow me on Twitter @AndyCliffSCL, visit our website www.straightforwardconsultancy.co.uk  and our blog http://straightforwardconsultancy.blogspot.co.uk/

Andy Cliff is an industry professional who launched his own logistics consultancy, Straightforward Consultancy Ltd (SCL) after a 30 year career in international logistics, working for companies such as DB Schenker, Kuehne & Nagel and DHL Global Forwarding in operational, sales and management roles.

Andy is part of the  judging panel for the 2016 Global Freight Awards, his second year in this prestigious role. The awards recognize quality, innovation and performance in the field of international logistics.  

Andy felt that in an increasingly complex and confusing world of logistics, UK importers and exporters needed a company alongside them which could help them to reduce costs, lessen their workload and provide expert advice and support day-to-day.