Share A Touch Of Love this Ramadan is a clothes donation campaign across the UAE that encourages people to donate clothes to those less fortunate during the Holy Month. Last year, the campaign was an incredible success — a Guinness World Record was achieved for the largest collection of clothes with over 146,000 items for donations.
“Unilever is delighted to continue with this campaign which is now in its sixth year; one of the key successes of the ‘Share a Touch of Love This Ramadan’ campaign in the past 5 years includes setting the Guinness World Record for Dubai, which has been instrumental in building consumer love and trust. This campaign is now a main activity in Unilever’s Ramadan calendar in the Gulf and has become a household Ramadan charitable act that consumers await and love to take part in” said Waqas Javed, marketing director foods, refreshments & home care, Unilever Gulf.
Until July 25, donors can hand their unwanted clothes over at the collection booths in Mirdif Mall, Mall of the Emirates, Lamcy Plaza and Deira City Centre. A further booth will be in Ibn Battuta Mall until July 8. Community members can also call the dedicated mobile number 800-COMFORT (800-2663678) to have a representative pick up the clothing from their homes across the emirate.
cnewbould@thenational.ae
Will the pound fall to parity with the dollar?
The idea of pound parity now seems less far-fetched as the risk grows that Britain may split away from the European Union without a deal.
Rupert Harrison, a fund manager at BlackRock, sees the risk of it falling to trade level with the dollar on a no-deal Brexit. The view echoes Morgan Stanley’s recent forecast that the currency can plunge toward $1 (Dh3.67) on such an outcome. That isn’t the majority view yet – a Bloomberg survey this month estimated the pound will slide to $1.10 should the UK exit the bloc without an agreement.
New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly said that Britain will leave the EU on the October 31 deadline with or without an agreement, fuelling concern the nation is headed for a disorderly departure and fanning pessimism toward the pound. Sterling has fallen more than 7 per cent in the past three months, the worst performance among major developed-market currencies.
“The pound is at a much lower level now but I still think a no-deal exit would lead to significant volatility and we could be testing parity on a really bad outcome,” said Mr Harrison, who manages more than $10 billion in assets at BlackRock. “We will see this game of chicken continue through August and that’s likely negative for sterling,” he said about the deadlocked Brexit talks.
The pound fell 0.8 per cent to $1.2033 on Friday, its weakest closing level since the 1980s, after a report on the second quarter showed the UK economy shrank for the first time in six years. The data means it is likely the Bank of England will cut interest rates, according to Mizuho Bank.
The BOE said in November that the currency could fall even below $1 in an analysis on possible worst-case Brexit scenarios. Options-based calculations showed around a 6.4 per cent chance of pound-dollar parity in the next one year, markedly higher than 0.2 per cent in early March when prospects of a no-deal outcome were seemingly off the table.
Bloomberg
