Travel-Island.com - Foreign Currency Exchange Rates - Travel

<body> <h2>Foreign currency exchange rates. Online currency converter.</h2>A currency is a unit of exchange, facilitating the transfer of goods and services. It is a form of money, where money is defined as a medium of exchange (rather than e.g. a store of value). A currency zone is a country or region in which a specific currency is the dominant medium of exchange. To facilitate trade between currency zones, there are exchange rates i.e. prices at which currencies (and the goods and services of individual currency zones) can be exchanged against each other. Currencies can be classified as either floating currencies or fixed currencies based on their exchange rate regime. In common usage, currency sometimes refers to only paper money, as in "coins and currency", but this is misleading. Coins and paper money are both forms of currency.<br> <br> In most cases, each country has monopoly control over its own currency. Member countries of the European Monetary Union are a notable exception to this rule, as they have ceded control of monetary policy to the European Central Bank.<br> <br> In cases where a country does have control of its own currency, that control is exercised either by a central bank or by a Ministry of Finance. In either case, the institution that has control of monetary policy is referred to as the monetary authority. Monetary authorities have varying degrees of autonomy from the governments that create them. In the United States, the Federal Reserve operates with full independence from the government. It is important to note that a monetary authority is created and supported by its sponsoring government, so independence can be reduced or revoked by the legislative or executive authority that creates it. In almost all Western countries, the monetary authority is largely independent from the government.<br> <br> Several countries can use the same name, each for their own currency (e.g. Canadian dollars and US dollars), several countries can use the same currency (e.g. the euro), or a country can declare the currency of another country to be legal tender. For example, Panama and El Salvador have declared US currency to be legal tender, and from 1791-1857, Spanish silver coins were legal tender in the United States. At various times countries have either restamped foreign coins, or used currency board issuing one note of currency for each note of a foreign government held, as Ecuador currently does.<br> <br> Each currency typically has one fractional currency, often valued at 1/100 of the main currency: 100 cents = 1 dollar, 100 centimes = 1 franc, 100 pence = 1 pound. Units of 1/10 or 1/1000 are also common, but some currencies do not have any smaller units. Mauritania and Madagascar are the only remaining countries that do not use the decimal system; instead, the Mauritanian ouguiya is divided into 5 khoum, while the Malagasy ariary is divided into 5 iraimbilanja. However, due to inflation, both fractional units have in practice fallen into disuse.<br> <br> In finance, the exchange rate (also known as the foreign-exchange rate, forex rate or FX rate) between two currencies specifies how much one currency is worth in terms of the other. For example an exchange rate of 120 Japanese yen (JPY, ¥) to the United States dollar (USD, $) means that JPY 120 is worth the same as USD 1. The foreign exchange market is one of the largest markets in the world. By some estimates, about 2 trillion USD worth of currency changes hands every day.<br> <br> The spot exchange rate refers to the current exchange rate. The forward exchange rate refers to an exchange rate that is quoted and traded today but for delivery and payment on a specific future date.<br> <br> An exchange rate quotation is given by stating the number of units of a price currency that can be bought in terms of 1 unit currency. For example, in a quotation that says the EUR-USD exchange rate is 1.2 USD per EUR, the price currency is USD and the unit currency is EUR.<br> <br> Quotes using a country's home currency as the price currency (e.g., £0.574744 = $1 in the UK) are known as direct quotation or price quotation (from that country's perspective) ([1]) and are used by most countries.<br> <br> Quotes using a country's home currency as the unit currency (e.g., $1.73990 = £1 in the UK) are known as indirect quotation or quantity quotation and are used in British newspapers and are also common in Australia, New Zealand and Canada.<br> <br> direct quotation: Home Currency / Foreign Currency <br> indirect quotation: Foreign Currency / Home Currency <br> Note that, using direct quotation, if a unit currency is strengthening (i.e., appreciating, or becoming more valuable) then the exchange rate number decreases. Conversely if the price currency is strengthening, the exchange rate number increases and the unit currency is depreciating.<br> <br> A market based exchange rate will change whenever the values of either of the two component currencies change. A currency will tend to become more valuable whenever demand for it is greater than the available supply. It will become less valuable whenever demand is less than available supply (this does not mean people no longer want money, it just means they prefer holding their wealth in some other form, possibly another currency).<br> <br> Increased demand for a currency is due to either an increased transaction demand for money, or an increased speculative demand for money. The transaction demand for money is highly correlated to the country's level of business activity, gross domestic product (GDP), and employment levels. The more people there are out of work, the less the public as a whole will spend on goods and services. Central banks typically have little difficulty adjusting the available money supply to accommodate changes in the demand for money due to business transactions.<br> <br> The speculative demand for money is much harder for a central bank to accommodate but they try to do this by adjusting interest rates. An investor may choose to buy a currency if the return (that is the interest rate) is high enough. The higher a country's interest rates, the greater the demand for that currency. It has been argued that currency speculation can undermine real economic growth, in particular since large currency speculators may deliberately create downward pressure on a currency in order to force that central bank to sell their currency to keep it stable (once this happens, the speculator can buy the currency back from the bank at a lower price, close out their position, and thereby take a profit).<br> <br> In choosing what type of asset to hold, people are also concerned that the asset will retain its value in the future. Most people will not be interested in a currency if they think it will devalue. A currency will tend to lose value, relative to other currencies, if the country's level of inflation is relatively higher, if the country's level of output is expected to decline, or if a country is troubled by political uncertainty. For example, when Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed his Government on February 24, 2004, the price of the ruble dropped. When China announced plans for its first manned space mission, synthetic futures on Chinese yuan jumped (since China's currency is officially pegged, synthetic markets have emerged that can behave as if the yuan was floating).<br> <br> Like the stock exchange, money can be made or lost on the foreign exchange market by investors and speculators buying and selling at the right times. Currencies can be traded at spot and foreign exchange options markets. The spot market represents current exchange rates, whereas options are derivatives of exchange rates.<br> <br> The foreign exchange markets are usually highly liquid as the world's main international banks provide a market around-the-clock. The Bank for International Settlements reported that global foreign exchange market turnover daily averages in April was $650 billion in 1998 (at constant exchange rates) and increased to $1.9 trillion in 2004 (Triennial Central Bank Survey of Foreign Exchange and Derivatives Market Activity 2004 - Final Results). The biggest foreign exchange trading centre is London, followed by New York and Tokyo. <p>Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, American Samoa, Andorra, Angola, Anguilla, Antarctica, Antigua & Barbuda, Arctic Ocean, Argentina, Armenia, Aruba, Ashmore & Cartier Islands, Atlantic Ocean, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, The, Bahrain, Baker Island, Bangladesh, Barbados, Bassas da India, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bermuda, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Botswana, Bouvet Island, Brazil, British Indian Ocean Territory, British Virgin Islands, Brunei, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Myanmar, Burma, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Cayman Islands, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, China, Christmas Island, Clipperton Island, Cocos Keeling Islands, Colombia, Comoros, Democratic Republic Congo, Republic Congo, Cook Islands, Coral Sea Islands, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Europa Island, Falkland Islands, Islas Malvinas, Faroe Islands, Fiji, Finland, France, French Guiana, French Polynesia, French Southern & Antarctic Lands, Gabon, Gambia, The, Gaza Strip, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Gibraltar, Glorioso Islands, Greece, Greenland, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guam, Guatemala, Guernsey, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau Guyana, Haiti, Heard Island & McDonald Islands, Holy See Vatican City, Honduras, Hong Kong, Howland Island, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indian Ocean, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Jan Mayen, Japan, Jarvis Island, Jersey, Johnston Atoll, Jordan, Juan de Nova Island, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kingman Reef, Kiribati, Korea, North, Korea, South, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macau, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Man, Isle of, Marshall Islands, Martinique, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mayotte, Mexico, Micronesia, Midway Islands, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro & Serbia, Montserrat, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nauru, Navassa Island, Nepal, Netherlands, Netherlands Antilles, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Niue, Norfolk Island, Northern Mariana Islands, Norway, Oman, Pacific Ocean, Pakistan, Palau, Palmyra Atoll, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paracel Islands, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Pitcairn Islands, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Reunion, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Saint Helena, Saint Kitts & Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Pierre & Miquelon, Saint Vincent & the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Sao Tome & Principe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia & Montenegro, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, South Georgia & the South Sandwich Islands, Southern Ocean, Spain, Spratly Islands, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Svalbard, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Tokelau, Tonga, Trinidad & Tobago, Tromelin Island, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Turks & Caicos Islands, Tuvalu, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Vietnam, Virgin Islands, Wake Island, Wallis & Futuna, West Bank, Western Sahara, World, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe. Afghanistan Afghani AFA . Albanian Lek ALL . Algerian Dinar DZD . Andorran Franc ADF . Andorran Peseta ADP . Angolan Kwanza AOA . Angolan New . Kwanza AON . Argentine Peso ARS . Armenian Dram AMD . Aruban Florin AWG . Australian Dollar AUD . Austrian Schilling ATS . Azerbaijan Manat AZM . Azerbaijan New Manat AZN . Bahamian Dollar BSD . Bahraini Dinar BHD . Bangladeshi Taka BDT . Barbados Dollar BBD . Belarusian Ruble BYR . Belgian Franc BEF . Belize Dollar BZD . Bermudian Dollar BMD . Bhutan Ngultrum BTN . Bolivian Boliviano BOB . Bosnia and Herzegovina Convertible Mark BAM . Botswana Pula BWP . Brazilian Real BRL . British Pound GBP . Brunei Dollar BND . Bulgarian Lev BGN . Burundi Franc BIF . CFA Franc BCEAO XOF . CFA Franc BEAC XAF . CFP Franc XPF . Cambodian Riel KHR . Canadian Dollar CAD . Cape Verde Escudo CVE . Cayman Islands Dollar KYD . Chilean Peso CLP . Chinese Yuan Renminbi CNY . Colombian Peso COP . Comoros Franc KMF . Congolese Franc CDF . Costa Rican Colon CRC . Croatian Kuna HRK . Cuban Convertible Peso CUC . Cuban Peso CUP . Cyprus Pound CYP . Czech Koruna CZK . Danish Krone DKK . Djibouti Franc DJF . Dominican R. Peso DOP . Dutch Guilder NLG . ECU XEU . East Caribbean Dollar XCD . Ecuador Sucre ECS . Egyptian Pound EGP . El Salvador Colon SVC . Estonian Kroon EEK . Ethiopian Birr ETB . Euro EUR . Falkland Islands Pound FKP . Fiji Dollar FJD . Finnish Markka FIM . French Franc FRF . Gambian Dalasi GMD . Georgian Lari GEL . German Mark DEM . Ghanaian Cedi GHC . Gibraltar Pound GIP . Gold (oz.) XAU . Greek Drachma GRD . Guatemalan Quetzal GTQ . Guinea Franc GNF . Guyanese Dollar GYD . Haitian Gourde HTG . Honduran Lempira HNL . Hong Kong Dollar HKD . Hungarian Forint HUF . Iceland Krona ISK . Indian Rupee INR . Indonesian Rupiah IDR . Iranian Rial IRR . Iraqi Dinar IQD . Irish Punt IEP . Israeli New Shekel ILS . Italian Lira ITL . Jamaican Dollar JMD . Japanese Yen JPY . Jordanian Dinar JOD . Kazakhstan Tenge KZT . Kenyan Shilling KES . Kuwaiti Dinar KWD . Kyrgyzstanian Som KGS . Lao Kip LAK . Latvian Lats LVL . Lebanese Pound LBP . Lesotho Loti LSL . Liberian Dollar LRD . Libyan Dinar LYD . Lithuanian Litas LTL . Luxembourg Franc LUF . Macau Pataca MOP . Macedonian Denar MKD . Malagasy Ariary MGA . Malagasy Franc MGF . Malawi Kwacha MWK . Malaysian Ringgit MYR . Maldive Rufiyaa MVR . Maltese Lira MTL . Mauritanian Ouguiya MRO . Mauritius Rupee MUR . Mexican Peso MXN . Moldovan Leu MDL . Mongolian Tugrik MNT . Moroccan Dirham MAD . Mozambique Metical MZM . Myanmar Kyat MMK . NL Antillian Guilder ANG . Namibia Dollar NAD . Nepalese Rupee NPR . New Zealand Dollar NZD . Nicaraguan Cordoba Oro NIO . Nigerian Naira NGN . North Korean Won KPW . Norwegian Kroner NOK . Omani Rial OMR . Pakistan Rupee PKR . Palladium (oz.) XPD . Panamanian Balboa PAB . Papua New Guinea Kina PGK . Paraguay Guarani PYG . Peruvian Nuevo Sol PEN . Philippine Peso PHP . Platinum (oz.) XPT . Polish Zloty PLN . Portuguese Escudo PTE . Qatari Rial QAR . Romanian Lei ROL . Romanian New Lei RON . Russian Rouble RUB . Rwandan Franc RWF . Samoan Tala WST . Sao Tome/Principe Dobra STD . Saudi Riyal SAR . Serbian Dinar CSD . Seychelles Rupee SCR . Sierra Leone Leone SLL . Silver (oz.) XAG . Singapore Dollar SGD . Slovak Koruna SKK . Slovenian Tolar SIT . Solomon Islands Dollar SBD . Somali Shilling SOS . South African Rand ZAR . South-Korean Won KRW . Spanish Peseta ESP . Sri Lanka Rupee LKR . St. Helena Pound SHP . Sudanese Dinar SDD . Sudanese Pound SDP . Suriname Dollar SRD . Suriname Guilder SRG . Swaziland Lilangeni SZL . Swedish Krona SEK . Swiss Franc CHF . Syrian Pound SYP . Taiwan Dollar TWD . Tanzanian Shilling TZS . Thai Baht THB . Tonga Pa'anga TOP . Trinidad/Tobago Dollar TTD . Tunisian Dinar TND . Turkish Lira TRL . Turkish New Lira TRY . Turkmenistan Manat TMM . Uganda Shilling UGX . Ukraine Hryvnia UAH . Uruguayan Peso UYP . Utd. Arab Emir. Dirham AED . Vanuatu Vatu VUV . Venezuelan Bolivar VEB . Vietnamese Dong VND . Yemeni Rial YER . Yugoslav Dinar YUN . Zambian Kwacha ZMK . Zimbabwe Dollar ZWD .</p> <p>A currency is a unit of exchange, facilitating the transfer of goods and services. It is a form of money, where money is defined as a medium of exchange (rather than a store of value). A currency zone is a country or region in which a specific currency is the dominant medium of exchange. To facilitate trade between currency zones, there are exchange rates i.e. prices at which currencies (and the goods and services of individual currency zones) can be exchanged against each other. Currencies can be classified as either floating currencies or fixed currencies based on their exchange rate regime. In common usage, currency sometimes refers to only paper money, as in "coins and currency", but this is misleading. Coins and paper money are both forms of currency.<br> <br> In most cases, each country has monopoly control over the supply and production of its own currency. Member countries of the European Monetary Union are a notable exception to this rule, as they have ceded control of monetary policy to the European Central Bank.<br> <br> In cases where a country does have control of its own currency, that control is exercised either by a central bank or by a Ministry of Finance. In either case, the institution that has control of monetary policy is referred to as the monetary authority. Monetary authorities have varying degrees of autonomy from the governments that create them. In the United States, the Federal Reserve operates without direct interference from the legislature or executive. It is important to note that a monetary authority is created and supported by its sponsoring government, so independence can be reduced or revoked by the legislative or executive authority that creates it. However, in practical terms, the revocation of authority is not likely since those who have the power to do so are generally beholden to the Fed for their positions. In almost all Western countries, the monetary authority is largely independent from the government.<br> <br> Several countries can use the same name, each for their own currency (e.g. Canadian dollars and US dollars), several countries can use the same currency (e.g. the euro), or a country can declare the currency of another country to be legal tender. For example, Panama and El Salvador have declared US currency to be legal tender, and from 1791-1857, Spanish silver coins were legal tender in the United States. At various times countries have either restamped foreign coins, or used currency board issuing one note of currency for each note of a foreign government held, as Ecuador currently does.<br> <br> Each currency typically has one fractional currency, often valued at 1/100 of the main currency: 100 cents = 1 dollar, 100 centimes = 1 franc, 100 pence = 1 pound. Units of 1/10 or 1/1000 are also common, but some currencies do not have any smaller units. Mauritania and Madagascar are the only remaining countries that do not use the decimal system; instead, the Mauritanian ouguiya is divided into 5 khoum, while the Malagasy ariary is divided into 5 iraimbilanja. However, due to inflation, both fractional units have in practice fallen into disuse.<br> <br> The origin of currency is the creation of a circulating medium of exchange based on a unit of account which quickly becomes a store of value. Currency evolved from two basic innovations: the use of counters to assure that shipments arrived with the same goods that were shipped, and later with the use of silver ingots to represent stored value in the form of grain. Both of these developments had occurred by 2000 BC. Originally money was a form of receipting grain stored in temple granaries in Egypt and ancient Mesopotamia.<br> <br> This first stage of currency, where metals were used to represent stored value, and symbols to represent commodities, formed the basis of trade in the Fertile Crescent for over 1500 years. However, the collapse of the Near Eastern trading system pointed to a flaw: in an era where there was no place that was safe to store value, the value of a circulating medium could only be as sound as the forces that defended that store. Trade could only reach as far as the credibility of that military. By the late Bronze Age, however, a series of international treaties had established safe passage for merchants around the Eastern Mediterranean, spreading from Minoan Crete and Mycenae in the North West to Elam and Bahrein in the South East. Although it is not known what functionbed as a currency to facilitate these exhanges, it is thought that ox-hide shaped ingots of copper, produced in Cyprus may have functioned as a currency.<br> <br> It is thought that the increase in piracy and raiding associated with the Late Bronze Age general systems collapse, possibly produced by the Peoples of the Sea brought this trading system to an end. It was only with the recovery of Phoenician trade in the nineth and tenth centuries, that saw a return to prosperity, and the appearance of real coinage, possibly first in Anatolia with Croesus of Lydia and subsequently with the Greeks and Persians.</p> </body>