GBP-HKD Why camera gear is expensive

[admirable]

I hope this is in the right section and not too boring for anyone!

I have just screen grabbed these charts 5 mins ago just to let everyone see the drop in the Pound against the Honk Kong Dollar.

This is reason that new gear is so expensive today. The shortage of new stock is due to retailers refusing to stock up at these levels for fear this is short term.

I hope you can make out the detail in the charts, the 1st chart is weekly and the second is Daily movement.

Daily chart,

This would indicate we have settlement here for the time being.

 

[grumpybadger]

Interesting except for the fact that it is likely to be the Japanese yen that drives pricing since most of the stuff is made in Japan.

The other thing is that the HKD is actually tied to the US dollar. This means that $1 US is tied to a range of $7.75 to $7.85 HK and is showing today at $7.757 HK/US.

So the real issue is that the pound is weaker against both USD and JPY

 

[admirable]

OK, the GBP-JPY was at 215 1 year ago, today trading at 138, with the largest drop from 190 in Sept.

I suppose the real issue is the pound is weaker against everything!

 

[Kev M]

Do you think we'll see the same price hikes in other photography equipment? I'm looking for a tripod and head, I was going to buy one this month and one next but if prices are going to shoot up then I might be better sticking both on the credit card now. I'm looking at Manfrotto gear which I think is made in Italy but I'm not certain.

 

[admirable]

Italy is euros and we seem to have bottomed for a while on that one so I wouldn't rush out just yet.

 

[grumpybadger]

It's actually Euro/Pound exchange rate that Canon have used as the stated reason for raising prices. But, as admirable says, it appears to be levelling.