A weaker is usually reported as good news for .
The picture is more complicated where firms put together parts bought abroad.
A clothing factory buys cloth and machines abroad and sells the finished item abroad.
Its depends on the gap between two prices, not on the level of either.
moves therefore help less than the headline suggests.
Small importers face a second problem that large firms do not.
contracts, which fix a rate in advance, are sold in sizes that suit a bank.
A firm that buys one container a month cannot use them at a sensible cost.
It therefore carries the risk itself and prices with a wider buffer.
That buffer is paid by the customer, which is how a move reaches a shop shelf.
Governments sometimes respond by holding the rate steady through .
Stability is genuinely valuable for planning, and it is expensive to buy.
The spent to hold a rate are that cannot be used elsewhere.