How they Affect the Economy

Although a currency’s level should be determined by the underlying economy, the tables are often turned as huge movements in a currency can dictate the overall economy’s fortunes – a currency tail wagging the economic dog.

While the impact of a currency’s gyrations on an economy is far-reaching, most people do not pay close attention to exchange rates because most of their business is conducted in their domestic currency. For the typical consumer, exchange rates only come into focus for occasional activities or transactions, such as foreign travel, import payments, or overseas remittances.

A common fallacy that most people harbor is that a strong domestic currency is a good thing because it makes it cheaper to travel to Europe, for example, or to pay for an imported product. Realistically, an unduly strong currency can exert a significant drag on the underlying economy over the long term as entire industries are rendered noncompetitive and thousands of jobs are lost. While consumers may disdain a weaker domestic currency, a weak currency can result in more economic benefits.

The value of the domestic currency in the foreign exchange market is an important instrument in a central bank’s toolkit, as well as a key consideration when it sets monetary policy. Directly or indirectly, currency levels affect a number of key economic variables. They may play a role in the interest rate you pay on your mortgage, the returns on your investment portfolio, the price of groceries in your local supermarket, and even your job prospects.

A currency’s level has a direct impact on the following aspects of the economy:

This refers to a nation’s international trade or its exports and imports. In general terms, a weaker currency will stimulate exports and make imports more expensive, thereby decreasing a nation’s trade deficit (or increasing surplus) over time.

For example, assume you are a US exporter who sold a million widgets at $10 each to a buyer in Europe two years ago when the exchange rate was €1=$1.25. The cost to your European buyer was, therefore, €8 per widget. Your buyer is now negotiating a better price for a large order, and because the dollar has declined to 1.35 per euro, you can afford to give the buyer a price break while still clearing at least $10 per widget.

Even if your new price is €7.50, which amounts to a 6.25% discount from the previous price, your price in dollars would be $10.13 at the current exchange rate. The depreciation in your domestic currency is the primary reason why your export business has remained competitive in international markets.

Conversely, a significantly stronger currency can reduce export competitiveness and make imports cheaper, which can cause the trade deficit to widen further, eventually weakening the currency in a self-adjusting mechanism. But before this happens, industry sectors that are highly export-oriented can be decimated by an unduly strong currency.

The basic formula for an economy’s GDP is:

$beginaligned &GDP= C + I + G + (X-M)\ &textbfwhere:\ &C = textconsumption or consumer spending, the biggest\ &textcomponent of an economy\ &I = textcapital investment by businesses and households\ &G = textgovernment spending\ &(X-M) = textexports – imports, or net exports\ endaligned$​GDP=C+I+G+(X−M)where:C=consumption or consumer spending, the biggestcomponent of an economyI=capital investment by businesses and householdsG=government spending(X−M)=exports – imports, or net exports​

From this equation, it is clear that the higher the value of net exports, the higher a nation’s GDP. As discussed earlier, net exports have an inverse correlation with the strength of the domestic currency. 

Foreign capital tends to flow into countries that have strong governments, dynamic economies, and stable currencies. A nation needs to have a relatively stable currency to attract investment capital from foreign investors. Otherwise, the prospect of exchange losses inflicted by currency depreciation may deter overseas investors.

Governments greatly prefer FDI to foreign portfolio investments since the latter are often akin to “hot money” that can leave the country when the going gets tough. This phenomenon, referred to as “capital flight,” can be sparked by any negative event, including an expected or anticipated devaluation of the currency.

A devalued currency can result in “imported” inflation for countries that are substantial importers. A sudden decline of 20% in the domestic currency may result in imported products costing 25% more since a 20% decline means a 25% increase to get back to the original price point.

As mentioned earlier, the exchange rate level is a key consideration for most central banks when setting monetary policy. For example, former Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney said in a September 2012 speech that the bank takes the exchange rate of the Canadian dollar into account in setting monetary policy. Carney said that the persistent strength of the Canadian dollar was one of the reasons why his country’s monetary policy had been “exceptionally accommodative” for so long.

A strong domestic currency exerts a drag on the economy, achieving the same end result as tighter monetary policy (i.e., higher interest rates). In addition, further tightening of monetary policy at a time when the domestic currency is already unduly strong may exacerbate the problem by attracting more hot money from foreign investors, who are seeking higher yielding investments (which would further push up the domestic currency).

The global Forex market is by far the largest financial market with its daily trading volume of over $5 trillion – far exceeding that of equities, bonds, and commodities markets. Despite such enormous trading volumes, currencies usually stay off the front pages. However, there are times when currencies move in dramatic fashion; the reverberations of these moves can be literally felt around the world. We list below a few examples:

• The Asian crisis of 1997-98. A prime example of the havoc that can be wreaked on an economy by adverse currency moves, the Asian crisis began with the devaluation of the Thai baht in July 1997. The devaluation occurred after the baht came under intense speculative attack, forcing Thailand’s central bank to abandon its peg to the US dollar and float the currency. This triggered a financial collapse that spread like wildfire to the neighboring economies of Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea, and Hong Kong. The currency contagion led to a severe contraction in these economies as bankruptcies soared and stock markets plunged.
• China’s undervalued yuan. China held its yuan steady for a decade from 1994 to 2004, enabling its export juggernaut to gather tremendous momentum from an undervalued currency. This prompted a growing chorus of complaints from the US and other nations (China artificially suppressed the value of its currency to boost exports). China has since allowed the yuan to appreciate at a modest pace, from over eight to the dollar in 2005 to just over six in 2018.

Here are some suggestions to benefit from currency moves:

• Invest overseas. If you are a US-based investor and believe the USD is in a secular decline, invest in strong overseas markets because your returns will be boosted by the appreciation in the foreign currencies. Consider the example of the Canadian benchmark index – the TSX Composite – in the first decade of this millennium. While the S&P 500 was virtually flat over this period, the TSX generated total returns of about 72% (in Canadian dollar terms) during this decade. But the steep appreciation of the Canadian dollar versus the US dollar over these 10 years would have almost doubled returns for a US investor to about 137% in total or 9% per annum.
• Invest in U.S. multinationals. The US has the largest number of multinational companies, many of which derive a substantial part of their revenues and earnings from foreign countries. Earnings of US multinationals are boosted by the weaker dollar, which should translate into higher stock prices when the greenback is weak.
• Refrain from borrowing in low-interest foreign currencies. This has admittedly not been a pressing issue since 2000 as US interest rates have been at record lows for years. However, they are on the move again now; at some point, they will revert to historically higher levels. At such times, investors who are tempted to borrow in foreign currencies with lower interest rates would be well served to remember the plight of those who had to repay borrowed yen in 2008. The moral of the story: Never borrow in a foreign currency if it is liable to appreciate and you do not understand or cannot hedge the exchange risk.

Currency moves can have a wide-ranging impact not just on a domestic economy but also on the global one. Investors can use such moves to their advantage by investing overseas or in US multinationals when the greenback is weak. Because currency moves can be a potent risk when one has a large Forex exposure, it may be best to hedge this risk through the many hedging instruments available.