Summary Of 2009 Currency Movements

One popular post last year was "Summary of 2008 Currency Movements" so I'll have a similar post this year. Like last year, the aggregate currency movements sometimes hid more dramatic intrayear movements. The euro was up 3.5% against the U.S. dollar this year, yet that masked a drop of about 10% between December 31 2008 and March 5 2009, followed by a 20% euro appreciation until November 25, after which it fell 4.5%. Even so, the full year numbers are certainly of great interest.

The dollar generally fell this year against other currencies, with some of last year's losers, such as the dollars of Australia and New Zealand and the Brasilian real being the great winners. On the other hand, last years great winner, the yen, was the only major currency to depreciate against the U.S. dollar this year (the yuan also depreciated, but by only 0.06%, rounded up to 0.1% below). The values are for change relative to the USD was:

Brazilian real: +32.7%
Australian dollar: +28.9%
New Zealand dollar: +25.1%
Norwegian krone: +21,1%
Canadian dollar: +16.6%
U.K. pound: +11.0%
Swedish krona: +10.7%
South Korean won: +9.1%
Indian Rupee: +4.4%
Swiss franc: +3.6%
Euro: +3.5%
Singapore dollar: +2.6%
Yuan: -0.1%
Yen: -1.8%