Pound’s sudden dip a headache

Queen Elizabeth is displayed on a flag of a 50 pound note at Myers of Keswick, a British grocery store, June 24, 2016 in New York City. - AFP

PETALING JAYA: Money changers are feeling the “pinch” with the pound sterling’s sudden dip, which they said was the worst in over three decades.

Halasuria Exchange director Datuk Abdul Sallam Packiry said money changers were not able to trade in the pound sterling for now.

“The average rate is based on yesterday’s (Thursday) rate of about RM5.89 to RM5.90 per pound.

“But customers are not selling because the rate is too low and they want to buy.

“However, there is no stock left because the rate is still so high,” he said.

Sallam said the pound sterling began plummeting since Thursday on the eve of Brexit.

“The depreciation rate was about 8% since yesterday (Thursday).

“We have never seen a sudden trend like this before. This is the worst drop since 1985,” he added.

Sallam said the ringgit stood at RM5.65 against a British pound which he said was “too low”.

“The cost that we are holding now is about RM5.90.

“I received many calls from customers who said RM5.90 is too high.

“Yes, but it is yesterday’s cost and that is the rate we are holding now as the retail price,” he explained.

He said he would wait until Monday before deciding what to do next.

“Let it subside. Things are expected to settle down later,” he added.

Mhdin Sdn Bhd director Abdul Razak Peer Mohamed said that one type of currency will not affect his business badly but admitted that he suffered significant amount of losses.

“We lose between RM20 and RM30 for each £100 we sell when the currency dropped from RM5.90 to RM5.57,” said Abdul Razak, who is still looking for a silver lining despite the historic lows.

“We shall know in a week. We cannot say much just by judging the market trend in a day.”

A money changer worker in Bukit Bintang who only wanted to be known as Solehin said he had various reactions from customers.

“Some understand that we cannot sell according to the global exchange rate because we will suffer from huge losses but we also have customers who scolded us, saying that we were trying to cheat them.

“This is beyond our control,” he said.