Pound crashes to all-time low with UK markets ‘under siege’

A cash tray holding British pound banknotes and coins in a shop in Barking. — Bloomberg

LONDON: The pound plunged almost 5% to an all-time low after Kwasi Kwarteng vowed to press on with more tax cuts, stoking fears that the new Chancellor of the Exchequer’s fiscal policies will send inflation and government debt soaring.

It was sterling’s biggest intraday decline since March 2020, when investor panic over the then-nascent Covid-19 pandemic roiled markets worldwide.