It was not a good week for commodity-related currencies, which all languished at the bottom of the foreign-exchange table, according to Moneycorp.

For a second week the South African rand was the worst performer, reported Moneycorp's Chris Redfern. "Unlike the Canadian and antipodean dollars it lacks the protection of a multi-A sovereign credit rating," he explained. "Investors’ aversion to the commodity currencies stemmed from the drip-feed of negative news out of China. Falling activity in the manufacturing sector and a 5.4 per cent annual drop in major corporate profits were just two of the symptoms."

In the middle of the field sterling picked up three quarters of a cent against the US dollar and fell the same distance against the euro. "The pound’s only claim to fame was a slightly embarrassing upward revision to GDP, which shrank by 'only' 0.5 per cent in the second quarter instead of the 0.7 per cent shown in the initial estimate," Redfern added.

The US dollar’s underlying handicap was a continuing reduction of speculative holdings by investors in response to the Federal Reserve’s hint at renewed quantitative easing.