Trans-Atlantic Exchange Rate Report May 19th - 23rd

By: Isabella Cortese, The Quinnipiac University Global Economics Research Team

Trans-Atlantic 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 May 19th – May 23rd, the Trans-Atlantic currencies showed synchronous, declining movements. The Swiss franc (maroon) showed the biggest decline, moving down 1.81% by the end of the week. The British pound (green) displays a steady drop, ending this week in a 1.48% loss. Similarly, the Canadian dollar (red) ended this period down 1.01%. The currency with the smallest percent change this week was the euro (blue), down 0.95%. Overall, this week showed all four currencies dropped in value against the USD this week.

Trans-Atlantic Historical Trends

Source: Yahoo Finance 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.

In the past few months, the Trans-Atlantic currencies display a continued momentum. The Canadian dollar (CAD) and Swiss franc (CHF) show a similar pattern in exchange rates, refelcting positive gains since mid-March. The euro (EUR) remained steady from the beginning of March to April, where it began to increase significantly, peaking in mid-April, and is now on a steady decline. Currently, the British pound (GBP) has the highest exchange rate out of all the Trans-Atlantic currencies, at about ~1.34%.