Summary
Does a falling currency help or harm the economy? It's an urgent question for the UK, as the pound fell sharply in value against other major currencies after the referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union in June 2016. Market commentators put this down to foreign investors becoming intensely gloomy about the prospects for the UK economy after Brexit. Others have welcomed the drop, saying it will benefit British exporters. But is it really such a simple, binary question? Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies investigates.
Contributors: Richard Barkey, CEO, Imparta Roger Bootle, chairman, Capital Economics Meredith Crowley, reader in international economics at Cambridge university Jane Foley, head of foreign exchange strategy, Rabobank Rain Newton-Smith, chief economist, Conferdation of British Industry Mick Ventola, managing director, Ventola Projects
Producer: Neil Koenig
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:04.6 | My name's Linda Davies and I commission podcast for BBC Sounds. |
| 0:08.4 | As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable |
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| 0:20.4 | makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars, |
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| 0:36.0 | BBC Sounds. |
| 0:38.0 | BBC Sounds Music Radio Podcasts. |
| 0:41.0 | This is Analysis, The Podcasts about the ideas behind the news from BBC Radio 4. |
| 0:47.0 | This week's edition takes a hard look at something that affects everyone's economic well-being. |
| 0:53.0 | The value of the pound has plummeted since the 2016 referendum |
| 0:58.0 | on Britain's membership of the European Union. |
| 1:01.0 | Some say that's just made us poorer, others that it's been a great boon for |
| 1:06.4 | the British economy. Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, asks |
| 1:12.1 | why the value of the pound has fallen, what the effects |
| 1:15.4 | have been and why it matters to all of us. Remember waking up on the 24th of June 2016 |
| 1:22.1 | the day after the referendum. The result was obviously |
| 1:25.6 | the big news but something big was also happening to the value of the pound. |
| 1:28.9 | Panic on the markets on a scale not seen since the global financial crisis. |
| 1:34.8 | The fear that this could turn into another one drove the pound down 12% this morning, |
| 1:39.9 | the biggest drop in half a century. |
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