Pacific Exchange Rates Report for August 18th – 22nd

By: Mariam Saad, The Quinnipiac University Global Economics Research Team

Pacific Currencies Index

Source: Eurostat and own calculations. Exchange rates are inverted to be USD per local currency (i.e., an increase indicates a stronger domestic currency) and then indexed to be 100 at the start of the period.

For the week of August 18^th – August 22^nd, there were very interesting performances among the Pacific currencies. While all the currencies followed different patterns, they were all at least slightly stronger by the end of the week. The Japanese Yen (maroon) immediately started to rise from the beginning of the week, then dipping slightly and climbing back up, ending up a little over 1% stronger than it was at the beginning of the week. The Australian Dollar (green) also immediately rose, though slower, and continued to rise throughout the week, ending up almost 1.5% stronger. The New Zealand Dollar (blue) followed a similar pattern, though it dipped slightly early in the week, then rose, ending up the strongest of the currencies, at 2% stronger. The South Korean Won (red) on the other hand, decreased in the beginning, then rose with the rest of the currencies, but fell again, ending up the weakest of the currencies, only slightly stronger than it previously was.

Pacific Historical Trends

Source: Eurostat and own calculations. Exchange rates are inverted to be USD per local currency (i.e., an increase indicates a stronger domestic currency. The center line is a rolling three-month average. The upper and lower boundaries are the average plus and average minus one standard deviation, respectively, for the same three-month period.

For the week of August 18^th – August 22^nd, all the currencies have been following their recent pattern of decreasing. While the Australian Dollar (AUD), New Zealand Dollar (NZD), and South Korean Won (KRW) have decreased the most throughout the month of August, falling significantly, the Japanese Yen (JPY) has not fallen by much. However, the graph shows that the other currencies that have fallen more, specifically NZD, are slightly curving at the bottom, indicating that they may rise soon, especially after the NZD’s excellent performance this week on the weekly index.