The pound has fallen below the $1.20 mark, a level not seen since 1985, ahead of a speech on Jan. 17 when UK prime minister Theresa May is expected to signal that Britain will fully break out of the EU’s common market after Brexit.
The UK currency fell as much as 1.6 percent to a low of $1.1986 – a break of this threshold last seen briefly during October’s flash crash – against the dollar in early Asian trading in an unusually wide gap from Jan. 13 New York close at $1.2175.
