AMERICAN EXCHANGE RATE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14986, 13 August 1919, Page 8

AMERICAN EXCHANGE RATE.

PALL OP THE SOVEREIGN.

The' American . exchange rate is now 4.34; that being the .price per £1 quoted yesterday by. the banks for. a draft on tbd United Staies, (states the Auckland Herald of Saturday). Put into clear language this^ineans that m converting dollars to sterling only 4-,dcdlars 34 cents ;ai*e now i;equir'ea- to • pay fpr a sovereign, compared, with^Bs before the war. At 4.30 to the sterling the American .dollar is worth thd^familiar 4s ,2d, at'which it is usually taken for rough calculation. . Fo*' a .long -time before the war, hoWe^r, the. exchange was at 4.85 to the'£, v equivaleht'td 4s l^d to the dollar. The present fall m, exchange makes the dollafi: ,*^orth abdut4s, 7id. The result is that,^^ .-whereasj jprior 4 to the war, it -only reghijed 4i; l^fl to buy goods m -Nejv ':York'lvor.th ohe doilaf t it requires ■•to-day 4s'^-3> so that everything imported from' .America costs 12 per Went. more in' exchange aldhe. • •The fluctuations m the rate of exchange have nearly all taken place m, the last- five month s.' About March last the rate suddenly fell fronj about '4.76 to 4.50. By April it was back to 4.67, m •JMav -it was 4.62, arid m July it was down to 4.27, which was lower than it over fell m 1915, when 'the market first felt the. effects of the phenonienal American trade, which was destined to play such a prominent part m the war.