Sterling woes will hit our exporters where it hurts

Some people are deeply uncomfortable with any policy that is deemed to support or subsidise business, but these ideological blind spots need to be forgotten for the greater good, writes Jim Power

Since the decision by the Bank of England, a couple of weeks back, to throw caution to the wind with an aggressive approach to interest rates and quantitative easing (QE), sterling has come under renewed pressure and this week went close to 87p against the euro.

This represents a currency adjustment of almost 25% since last November. This, effectively, means that somebody purchasing £1,000 today would have to pay €281 less than last November. This has the effect of making imports from the UK considerably cheaper and exports to the UK considerably more expensive.