Pacific Exchange Rates Report for January 19th – 23rd

By: Patrick Gorman, 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 January 19^th – January 23^rd, the Japanese Yen (maroon) and the South Korean Won (red) stayed stable throughout the week. They each made some moves up and down, but ended up close to even on the week, with the Japanese Yen strengthening just under .1% and the South Korean Won weakening about .2%. The Australian Dollar (green) and the New Zealand Dollar (blue) both steadily declined over the course of the week ending up with the Australian Dollar weakening about 2.3% and the Australian Dollar weakening just over 2.2%.

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 January 19^th – January 23^rd, the Australian Dollar (AUD) and New Zealand Dollar (NZD) pushed their 3-month lows even lower with weak weeks for both currencies. The South Korean Won (KRW) has bounced back from lows in recent weeks and pushed close to the highest levels it has reached in the past couple of months. The Japanese Yen (JPY) continued to push to higher and higher levels, after a strong week it remains close to it highs for the past couple months previously reached a few months ago.