Pacific Exchange Rates Report for March 16th – 20th

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 March 16^th – March 20^th, all currencies weakened other than the South Korean Won (red). The South Korean Won strengthened about .6% with a steep increase at the start of the week and not much movement for the rest of the week. The Australian Dollar (green) and the New Zealand Dollar (blue) followed similar paths throughout the week with sharp weakening and strengthening during the week they ended up about .3% and .5% weaker respectively. The Japanese Yen (maroon) was less volatile than the other Pacific currencies throughout the week and ended up about .3% weaker.

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 March 16^th – March 20^th, the Australian Dollar (AUD) still hovers around the levels that it has been for the last month and a half. The Japanese Yen (JPY) and the South Korean War (KRW) didn’t move much after pushing to three-month highs last week and stayed around similar levels to where they closed off last week. After and up and down week for the New Zealand Dollar (NZD), it remains just below the high levels that it reached in early January.