AMERICAN EXCHANGE BATE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17234, 9 August 1919, Page 10

AMERICAN EXCHANGE BATE.

! FALL OF THE SOVEREIGN. i EFFECT UPON BUSINESS. The American exchange rate is now 4.54, that being the price pec £1 quoted yesterday by the banks for a draft on the United States. Put into clear language; this means that in converting dollars to sterling only 4 dollars 54 cents are now required to pay for a sovereign, compared wit|| > 4.85 before the war. At 4.80 to the sterling the American dol'ar is worth the familiar 4a Id, as which it is usually taken fop rough calculation. For a long time before the war, however,-"the exchange was at 4.85' to the £, equivalent'fej Ss lj,& to the; dollar. The present fall in exchftng<»! makes the dollar worth about 4s 7&& The ' result is that, whereas, prior to the war it only requred 4$ 1U to buy Roods in ! New \ork worth one °° ! * r > it inquires tol day 4s 7Jd, so that everything impartial from America costs 13 per cent mora in exchange a>ona. The fluctuations In the rate of ex* d>ang« have nearly all taken pfcio?, fa the fast nve months. About March last t%9 r ,™ su ' 3denl y ./ell from about 4.76 L 4,50 By April it was back to 4.67, in May jt was 4.63,y and in July it wes down to 4.27, which was lower than it ever fall in 1915, when the market first felt the effects oi the phenomenal American trade, which was destined. to nls,v ! such a prominent part in the war I