‘The jewel has lost its shine’: how the world reacted to the UK’s pound crisis

The turmoil stirred condemnation in the US, bitter memories in Greece and interest among holidaymakers in Singapore

International reaction to the turmoil in the financial markets which saw the pound fall to its lowest level ever against the dollar is devastating in its condemnation of the new government's policies, and the astonishment and shock focused in particular on the chancellor's willingness to experiment with one of the world's most stable economies.

In the US, criticism was led by the former US treasury secretary Larry Summers, who took to Twitter to attack what he called the utterly irresponsible UK policy", expressing at the same time his surprise that the markets had reacted so quickly and harshly. He said this in itself indicated a loss of credibility.