By Oyintari Ben
On Monday morning, British pound stood around 0.4% higher at $1.135.
In the midst of ongoing political unrest and new economic cautionary statements about the UK, it dropped as low as $1.11 on Friday.
The only contender with the support of more than 100 Tory MPs necessary to be included in the party members’ vote is former chancellor Mr. Sunak.
Mr. Johnson withdrew from the race after declaring he wouldn’t be able to bring his party together, despite having the backing of 102 MPs, albeit only 57 MPs officially expressed it.
Penny Mordaunt, the leader of the Commons, is still running but is still short of 100 supporters. She has till Monday at 14:00 to submit it.
Following Liz Truss’ mini-budget last month, sterling hit a record low versus the dollar, and government borrowing prices shot up.
Investors were alarmed when former Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng pledged significant tax cuts without outlining how they would be funded, as Mr. Sunak had forewarned would occur before the summer’s Tory leadership election.
In an effort to calm the financial markets last week, the new Chancellor Jeremy Hunt rescinded almost all of Ms. Truss’s tax cuts. However, the markets have remained jittery.
On October 31, Mr. Hunt—who is supporting Mr. Sunak—is supposed to present his economic strategy for taxes and expenditures, though there are rumors that it may be postponed because of the leadership contest.
The Kroll Institute’s global top economist, Megan Greene, told the media that Mr. Sunak’s status as the front-runner “should help” to calm the markets.
