Pacific Exchange Rates Report for May 13 - 17
By: Thea Kageleiry, The Quinnipiac University Economics Research Team
Pacific Currencies Index
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) and then indexed to be 100 at the start of the period.
Between May 13th and May 17th, the Pacific exchange rates faced some volatility, all experiencing nearly a 1% decrease towards the end of the week. A couple of the exchange rates displayed similar behaviors, like the Australian dollar (green) and the New Zealand dollar (blue) – both began the week with a slow decrease, less than 0.5% over the course of two days, but falling sharply by nearly 1.5% before creeping up a bit before the end of the week. The Japanese yen (maroon) experienced some high and low points throughout the week, starting off with a steady increase before dropping off, but eventually turning towards an increase before the end of the week. Overall, the South Korean won (red) underwent the most noticeable change this week, descending consistently with a total decrease of roughly 1.7% by the end of the observed period.
Pacific 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.
Throughout the week of May 13th to 17th, most of the currencies showed decreases with a slight upward spike at the end of the week. The Australian dollar (AUD) is approaching new lows that haven’t been seen in the past few months. The New Zealand dollar (NZD) is also trending downwards. The Japanese yen (JPY) and the South Korean won (KRW) are following more upward trends, but the South Korean won especially has been fluctuating, remaining within somewhat the same range for the last month and a half. It has the potential to continue decreasing or increasing in the coming weeks.
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