L2 Exchange Rate Determination
L2 Exchange Rate Determination
L2 Exchange Rate Determination
•On the days when some currencies appreciate while others depreciate
against a particular currency, that currency is said to be “mixed in
trading.”
Measuring Exchange Rate Movements
St – 1
• Government Controls
•Governments may influence the equilibrium
exchange rate by:
• ¤ imposing foreign exchange barriers,
• ¤ imposing foreign trade barriers,
•¤ intervening in the foreign exchange market, and
•¤ affecting macro variables such as inflation, interest rates, and
income levels.
Factors that Influence Exchange Rates
• Expectations
•Foreign exchange markets react to any news that may
have a future effect.
•¤ News of a potential surge in U.S. inflation may cause currency
traders to sell dollars.
•Many institutional investors take currency positions
based on anticipated interest rate movements in various
countries.
Factors that Influence Exchange Rates
• Expectations
•Economic signals that affect exchange rates can
change quickly, such that speculators may overreact
initially and then find that they have to make a
correction.
•Speculation on the currencies of emerging markets can
have a substantial impact on their exchange rates.
Factors that Influence Exchange Rates
• Interaction of Factors
•The various factors sometimes interact and
simultaneously affect exchange rate movements.
•For example, an increase in income levels sometimes
causes expectations of higher interest rates, thus
placing opposing pressures on foreign currency values.
How Factors Can Affect Exchange
Rates
Factors that Influence Exchange Rates
• Interaction of Factors
•The sensitivity of an exchange rate to the factors is
dependent on the volume of international transactions
between the two countries.
• Large volume of international trade
• relative inflation rates may be more influential
•Large volume of capital flows interest rate fluctuations may be
more influential
Factors that Influence Exchange Rates
• Interaction of Factors
• An understanding of exchange rate equilibrium does
not guarantee accurate forecasts of future exchange
rates because that will depend in part on how the
factors that affect exchange rates will change in the
future.
Speculating on Anticipated Exchange Rates
• Make up several scenarios and think about how each scenario would,
other things equal, affect the demand for a currency, the supply of a
currency for sale, and the equilibrium exchange rate. Then integrate
several scenarios together to illustrate that in reality other things are not
held constant, which makes the assessment of exchange rate movement
more difficult.