Exchange Rate

An exchange rate is a rate at which one currency will be exchanged for another currency and affects trade and the movement of money between countries.

Exchange rates are impacted by both the domestic currency value and the foreign currency value. In July 2022, the exchange rate from U.S. Dollars to the Euro was 1.02, meaning it takes $1.02 to buy €1.

An exchange rate is a rate at which one currency will be exchanged for another currency. Most exchange rates are defined as floating and will rise or fall based on the supply and demand in the market.

Some exchange rates are pegged or fixed to the value of a specific country’s currency.

Exchange rate changes affect businesses by changing the cost of supplies that are purchased from a different country, and by changing the demand for their products from overseas customers.

The exchange rate between two currencies is commonly determined by the economic activity, market interest rates, gross domestic product, and unemployment rate in each of the countries. Commonly called market exchange rates, they are set in the global financial marketplace, where banks and other financial institutions trade currencies around the clock based on these factors. Changes in rates can occur hourly or daily with small changes or in large incremental shifts.

An exchange rate is commonly quoted using an acronym for the national currency it represents. For example, the acronym USD represents the U.S. dollar, while EUR represents the euro. To quote the currency pair for the dollar and the euro, it would be EUR/USD. In the case of the Japanese yen, it’s USD/JPY, or dollar to yen. An exchange rate of 100 means that 1 dollar equals 100 yen.

How exchange rates fluctuate

Exchange rates can be free-floating or fixed. A free-floating exchange rate rises and falls due to changes in the foreign exchange market. A fixed exchange rate is pegged to the value of another currency. The Hong Kong dollar is pegged to the U.S. dollar in a range of 7.75 to 7.85.

This means the value of the Hong Kong dollar to the U.S. dollar will remain within this range.

Exchange rates have what is called a spot rate, or cash value, which is the current market value. Alternatively, an exchange rate may have a forward value, which is based on expectations for the currency to rise or fall versus its spot price.

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