Irish firms urged to act on sterling fall

IRISH companies exporting to Britain have been urged to act now to protect themselves against a fall in sterling.

This follows comments by Bank of England governor Mervyn King sent the English currency more than 1% lower against the euro yesterday.

Mr King fuelled speculation of further interest rate rises in Britain when he said consumers had shown no reaction to the two rate hikes of 0.25% each in November and February.