Читать книгу Foreign Exchange: The Complete Deal - James McDowell. Sharpe - Страница 21

The early years of 2000 were similarly characterised, although sterling found additional support from the rapid growth in financial services, which the UK dominated with the US, and the diversification of foreign exchange reserves by the world’s central bank from dollars.

During this period the UK ran deficits on the current account but these were no longer an explicit policy constraint as they were viewed as self-correcting in the long run and in a period of global monetary expansion foreign investors were prepared to finance it. This all came to a sorry end in 2008 when the global financial system, in particular in the UK, imploded. The markets reverted to risk aversion with massive flows into safe-haven assets such as US Treasuries and out of deficit currencies and emerging market equities (risk assets). Sterling capitulated as huge borrowings in low interest currencies, notably the yen and Swiss franc (CHF) (carry trades), were unwound and investors sold sterling as more bank losses and failures were revealed.