Trade-weighted US dollar index

The trade-weighted US dollar index, also known as the broad index, is a measure of the value of the United States dollar relative to other world currencies. It is a trade weighted index that improves on the older U.S. Dollar Index by using more currencies and the updating the weights yearly (rather than never). The base index value is 100 in Jan 1997.[1]

Trade-weighted US dollar index - Broad index.

History

The trade-weighted dollar index was introduced in 1998 for two primary reasons. The first was the introduction of the euro, which eliminated several of the currencies in the standard dollar index; the second was to keep pace with new developments in US trade.[2]

Included currencies

In the older U.S. Dollar Index, a significant weight is given to the euro, because most U. S. Trade in 1973 was with European countries. As U. S. trade expanded over time, the weights in that index went unchanged and became out of date. To more accurately reflect the strength of the dollar relative to other world currencies, the Federal Reserve created the trade-weighted US dollar index,[3] which includes a bigger collection of currencies than the US dollar index. The regions included are:

Mathematical formulation

Based on nominal exchange rates

The index is computed as the geometric mean of the bilateral exchange rates of the included currencies. The weight assigned to the value of each currency in the calculation is based on trade data, and is updated annually (the value of the index itself is updated much more frequently than the weightings).[2] The index value at time is given by the formula:[2]

.

where

  • and are the values of the index at times and
  • is the number of currencies in the index at time
  • and are the exchange rates of currency at times and
  • is the weight of currency at time
  • and

Based on real exchange rates

The real exchange rate is a more informative measure of the dollar's worth since it accounts for countries whose currencies experience differing rates of inflation from that of the United States. This is compensated for by adjusting the exchange rates in the formula using the consumer price index of the respective countries. In this more general case the index value is given by:[2]

.

where

  • and are the values of the US consumer price index at times and
  • and and are the values of the country 's consumer price index at times and

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis data

The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, provides "weighted averages of the foreign exchange value of the U.S. dollar against the currencies of a broad group of major U.S. trading partners" with detailed information. The "broad currency index includes the Euro Area, Canada, Japan, Mexico, China, United Kingdom, Taiwan, Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Brazil, Switzerland, Thailand, Philippines, Australia, Indonesia, India, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Sweden, Argentina, Venezuela, Chile and Colombia."[4]

This table shows some highs and lows of the Trade Weighted U.S. Dollar Index: Broad [TWEXB] from 2002 to April 2017.[4]

Sample of trade weighted averages of foreign exchange value USD (highs/lows ) DMY [4]
20-02-200209-04-200823-07-201127-07-201118-03-201503-06-201517-02-201604-05-201626-08-201623-11-201604-01-201719-04-2017
129.363995.6084102.168294.0323117.4927115.5347123.7823118.6478120.2955127.2899128.5246124.0479

References

  1. "Trade Weighted U.S. Dollar Index". Retrieved 2 November 2018.
  2. Loretan, Mico (Winter 2005). "Indexes of the Foreign Exchange Value of the Dollar" (PDF). Federal Reserve Bulletin.
  3. http://www.federalreserve.gov/RELEASES/h10/Summary/
  4. Trade Weighted U.S. Dollar Index: Broad [TWEXB], Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (US), Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (FRED), April 27, 2017, retrieved April 28, 2017
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