Jump to content

Michael.

Elitists
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    1,790

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Posts posted by Michael.

    2016 Australian General Election

    in Politics and World Events

    Posted

    The frustrating thing is the "conservatives" in the Liberal party are blaming Turnball for the election result claiming he's too left wing and that he alienated Liberal voters. Yet when he took over from Abbott he had the highest approval rating since Howard. He lost that rating by having to support so many of their unpopular policies that in the past he's officially disagreed with, gay marriage, carbon pricing etc. They are the ones to blame for this result. Not Turnball.

    BREXIT vote aftermath

    in Politics and World Events

    Posted

    http://www.theage.com.au/world/brexit-mayhem-as-australians-rush-to-buy-pounds-20160624-gprfuv.html

    Brexit: 'Mayhem' as Australians rush to buy pounds

    Australian currency shops experienced "mayhem" and the Commonwealth Bank temporarily suspended some foreign exchange after the Pound Sterling fell to its lowest point in more than 30 years following Britain's vote to leave the European Union.

    Customers flocked to currency exchange markets across Sydney when the 'Brexit' was announced early on Friday afternoon and the pound fell to its lowest level against the US dollar since September 1985.

    1466804352887.jpg

    People queue at a currency exchange store in central Sydney to get their hands on pounds. Photo: Sophia Phan

    In the steepest one-day fall in the currency's history, the pound was worth US$1.5006 at 5.56pm on Thursday night local time, dropping to US$1.3241 six and a half hours later, when it became clear the Leave vote had succeeded.

    Travel Money, which owns 130 currency exchange stores in Australia, said customers rushed to "secure pounds" and had been queuing out the door at locations around the country through the afternoon.

    A similar reaction was seen at the company's stores in New Zealand.

    "The Travel Money shops in Australia are describing it as 'mayhem'," a spokesman said.

    "This does sometimes happen – when the Aussie dollar rallied strongly against the US dollar a few years ago, people scrambled to buy US dollars for their next holidays.

    "Brexit has certainly had an impact, but it's been coupled with an increase in demand for FX [foreign exchange] as a result of the upcoming school holidays. Together, these two factors have made it a very busy day."

    On Friday night, the Commonwealth Bank confirmed on Twitter it had suspended foreign exchange of transactions that didn't include Australian dollars until Monday morning, aggrieving Australian expats and tourists.

    "Due to recent results from the British exit referendum we are temporarily suspending all foreign exchange of GBP pounds and transactions that do not include AUD until further notice," the bank tweeted.

    Account holders then responded on social media, before the bank reopened its foreign exchange channels at midnight.

    In the Westfield Sydney shopping centre on Friday afternoon, at least eight people were photographed queuing at UAE Exchange.

    A worker at the store said customers began queueing to buy Pound Sterling at around 11.30am, when the vote was still being tallied, with the rush lasting for more than four hours.

    "There were so many customers," the worker said on Friday evening. "There were more buyers for the pound than usual."

    One explanation for this could be currency stores continuing to offer relatively stable prices as some economists said the "bottom [had] fallen out of the pound".

    Another could be that the pound is a "more attractive buy after the drop", with buyers stocking up while the price is low to sell later when the currency recovers.

    "People were coming and checking the rates and buying," the UAE Exchange worker said. "It's fluctuating a lot, the pound. The rates are good to buy now.

    "If you compare two or three days back, we were selling it at 48, 49 [pence per Australian dollar]. Today, it started going up. In the morning it was 51, then it went to 52. A few customers I even sold for 53.19. At the moment it's still 52.52."

×
×
  • Create New...