The pound has soared in response to the results of Scotland's independence referendum, hitting a two-year high against the euro.
"Scotland has voted against independence overnight in a move that has removed a great weight from the shoulders of sterling," Simon Smith, chief economist at FXPro told the Times.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
There is a "collective sigh of relief across the business community" following this morning's results, the Confederation of British Industry director-general John Cridland told the Guardian.
"Such a difficult campaign inevitably leaves scars which will take time to heal and we now need politicians, businesses and citizens to unite to achieve a better future for all in the UK."
The pound had fallen in recent weeks as markets responded to the uncertainty of the referendum result, with business leaders warning that a Yes vote would cause serious market volatility.
"There is still uncertainty, primarily over the new changes to voting on English issues," Brenda Kelly from IG Index told the BBC. "But these are of importance primarily to politicians and less so to markets."
-
5 museum-grade cartoons about Trump's Smithsonian purgeCartoons Artists take on institutional rebranding, exhibit interpretation, and more
-
Settling the West Bank: a death knell for a Palestine state?In the Spotlight The reality on the ground is that the annexation of the West Bank is all but a done deal
-
Codeword: August 23, 2025The Week's daily codeword puzzle
-
Labour shortages: the ‘most urgent problem’ facing the UK economy right nowSpeed Read Britain is currently in the grip of an ‘employment crisis’
-
Will the energy war hurt Europe more than Russia?Speed Read European Commission proposes a total ban on Russian oil
-
Will Elon Musk manage to take over Twitter?Speed Read The world’s richest man has launched a hostile takeover bid worth $43bn
-
Shoppers urged not to buy into dodgy Black Friday dealsSpeed Read Consumer watchdog says better prices can be had on most of the so-called bargain offers
-
Ryanair: readying for departure from LondonSpeed Read Plans to delist Ryanair from the London Stock Exchange could spell ‘another blow’ to the ‘dwindling’ London market
-
Out of fashion: Asos ‘curse’ has struck againSpeed Read Share price tumbles following the departure of CEO Nick Beighton
-
Universal Music’s blockbuster listing: don’t stop me now…Speed Read Investors are betting heavily that the ‘boom in music streaming’, which has transformed Universal’s fortunes, ‘still has a long way to go’
-
EasyJet/Wizz: battle for air supremacySpeed Read ‘Wizz’s cheeky takeover bid will have come as a blow to the corporate ego’
