Now the times anaysts ar praising the good old italian economic policies!!! Such a pity what this great country has become....
This kind of devaluation could have helped a country with a strong export driven industry 5 south korea, japan, germany, etc...) but the UK doesn' hav any...

gaet, Namur, Belgium

Happy New Year and maybe 2009 will be year Britain dumped its pound and adopted the euro...Anyway, funny to read that those who most question the euro are precisely those who have retained their former units. I am happy with the euro:) Sound, solid a rock, as good as the DM. Overvalued? well...

pascal-Piere, Dinan, Brittany, EU, france

It seems all reporters have now been brainwashed with this idea that a weak (devestated) currency is good. When will the media acknowledge this is a disaster? when the euro buys £2 perhaps?

Inflation will hit hard later in 2009. Interest rates will have to rise. Dont borrow money!

klara, Leeds, UK

Or we could join the $. Or how about the new currency being launched next year by the GCC countries Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait etc? Any views?

Julian, Paris, France

You can bash the pound all you like but it wont change the fact that the Eurozone is largely made up of basket case economies that are in far greater economic peril than the UK.
With the Euro at these levels, Spain, Italy, Ireland, etc will see economic collapse and their unemployment will soar.

John, Glasgow, UK

Why does the Govt think lowering interest rates is the answer? The problem is not the cost of money, but its availability. Lower the cost, no-one will lend. A 5% or 6% fixed rate = plenty of lenders, plenty of borrowers. 1% or 0% interest = no lenders and a worthless currency. Brown's legacy!

CRMB, Manchester,

Tom in London, London, UK
From Jan.2004 to Nov.2007, almost 4 years it was very stable at £1=€1.45+/-€0.05. Perhaps that's when we should have got in but now is not the rate to enter. They wouldn't admit us anyway with the debt we have.

Richard, Alicante, Spain

With the economic problems which Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain have plus the downturn in Germany, I have a feeling that even the euro-zone economy doesn't meet the minimum requirements for entry in the euro-zone. What a paradox!!

Richard, Alicante, Spain

Pound/Euro rate reflects UK poor economic prospects our Gold sold at £2B loss,our growth fuelled by borrowing; housing and commercial property bubble; over reliance on financial services 5/10 biggest companies were banks before the crunch The foregoing can be expressed as the failure of BROWN

Derek Edgley, Ellon,

During a recent visit to Prague 17th - 21st December, we sat down for 1 cup of coffee and 2 cups of hot chocolate in the old town square, our bill for these three drinks was £15. This Mr. Brown is what our £ is really worth on the open market and soon all imported goods will be just as expensive

Barbara, Hereford, U.K.

For those who can't see why currency devaluations during recessions are good, think back to 1992 when the pound devalued by falling out of the ERM: the recession ended and the UK had 17 years of uninterrupted growth. Or think back to the 30s depression, which ended in each country when it devalued.

bill, Madrid,

There is no upside to any country's currency going down the toilet. Ask anyone that's left in Zimbabwe, with the possible exception of Mugabe.

Visitors to the UK will soon find that although they might be getting lots of Pounds for their currency, they will need a lot of Pounds to buy anything.

Ian, Nanteuil, France

I don't think this is good for Britain, but it's great for us to be able to buy things online from Britain and pay in euros what the Brits pay in pounds... For so long, the UK was a country we couldn't afford to shop in!

Helene, Strasbourg, France

I like immigrants more than most, in fact, they make up virtually all of my friends and family, but, fear a virtuous economic upswing led by tourism and exporting, being undermined by the withdrawal from the economy of funds by immigrant workers in those sectors, to remit to their families abroad.

Jonathan, Hertford, UK

I remember people who were against joining the Euro telling me that joining it would mean they would lose money - well not joining it has done that for them already. If we had gone in when it first started we would have had about 1 Euro and 50 cents to the pound, now we would be lucky to get a Euro.

Gareth James, Cardiff, Wales

Exports, what exports?!

We were exporting financial services.

Anthony, London,

As an ex-pat in Greece I can tell you that everyone here is grateful they are in the Eurozone for if the old drachma was in circulation it would have certainly collapsed like the Hungarian and Sweedish currencies. Much more difficult then to deal with a crisis for a small nation

George, Greece,

Don't be absurd. What with the UK's borrowings totally out of control and the incredible weakness of its currency, it wouldn't even qualify to be admitted to the 2-year monitoring and control period any currency wishing to join the Euro has to successfully pass before being admitted.

Tom in London, London, UK

How much costs a liter of milk?

Peter, Berlin, Germany

The falling pound will make much of what we buy very much more expensive. It will have only a tiny impact on exports. The net impact will be a massive fall in our standard of living. There is no silver lining other than when we realise we really are poor maybe we will start facing up to reality

Max Mentor, Gerrards Cross, UK

This misses the real point about Britain's economy. Several euro countries have suffered a property crash like Spain BUT their banks remain strong. The pound has plummeted because of an endemic failure across the board due to Browns mishandling of the economy like banking and public expenditure.

Mike, Alicante, Spain