The Pound Sterling did a nose dive earlier, hitting a 13-month low during Monday’s trading session after the results of a recently conducted opinion poll showed that Scotland’s residents were was prepared to secede from the United Kingdom after a 300 year union. Though the margin is incredibly tight at 51% to 49% in favor of a yes vote for independence there is still 10 days left before Scotland’s voters take to the polls and vote on the referendum. That has left the British government scurrying to quickly respond to the poll with a sweetener package that could persuade Scottish voters to stay within the U.K. Only last week, experts and analysts had felt that it was unlikely that the independence referendum would receive a yes majority, and this unlikely outcome has all but spoiled sentiment for the currency.
As reported at 9:45 a.m. (BST) in London, the GBP/USD pair had earlier traded at $1.6105, a loss of more than 1%, while against the Euro, the EUR/GBP pair had traded earlier at 0.8038, a gain of nearly 1%, before retreating to the current price at 0.8026, still a gain of 0.26% .
Cameron’s Focus to Keep U.K. Together
According to a press release issued by the U.K. Prime Minister, David Cameron, there are no contingency plans currently under consideration for Scotland’s departure, and that the focus was centered on keeping the United Kingdom intact. Mr. Cameron had already made plans to visit Scotland before the election, but may have brought forward the timing of that visit.