1FEDERAL RESERVE STATISTICAL RELEASE February 27, 1998 G.5(405) FOREIGN EXCHANGE RATES FOR THE MONTH ENDING FEBRUARY 1998 THE TABLE BELOW SHOWS THE AVERAGE RATES OF EXCHANGE IN FEBRUARY 1998 TOGETHER WITH COMPARABLE FIGURES FOR OTHER MONTHS. AVERAGES ARE BASED ON DAILY NOON BUYING RATES FOR CABLE TRANSFERS IN NEW YORK CITY CERTIFIED FOR CUSTOMS PURPOSES BY THE FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF NEW YORK. (RATES IN CURRENCY UNITS PER DOLLAR) MONETARY 1998 1998 1997 1997 COUNTRY UNIT February January December February *AUSTRALIA DOLLAR 0.6744 0.6566 0.6619 0.7677 AUSTRIA SCHILLING 12.735 12.765 12.510 11.785 BELGIUM FRANC 37.417 37.536 36.748 34.556 CANADA DOLLAR 1.4334 1.4409 1.4271 1.3556 CHINA,P.R. YUAN 8.3072 8.3094 8.3099 8.3227 DENMARK KRONE 6.9089 6.9190 6.7752 6.3867 *EURO COMMUNITY ECU 1.0893 1.0869 1.1119 1.1591 FINLAND MARKKA 5.4999 5.5006 5.3789 4.9792 FRANCE FRANC 6.0744 6.0832 5.9542 5.6536 GERMANY D. MARK 1.8123 1.8165 1.7788 1.6747 GREECE DRACHMA 286.70 287.24 279.93 262.42 HONG KONG DOLLAR 7.7412 7.7425 7.7456 7.7474 INDIA RUPEE 39.008 39.391 39.400 35.891 *IRELAND POUND 1.3771 1.3819 1.4533 1.5860 ITALY LIRA 1788.28 1787.87 1743.86 1655.00 JAPAN YEN 125.85 129.55 129.73 122.96 MALAYSIA RINGGIT 3.8148 4.4093 3.7907 2.4866 MEXICO PESO 8.5021 8.2272 8.1271 7.8023 NETHERLANDS GUILDER 2.0432 2.0472 2.0051 1.8812 *NEW ZEALAND DOLLAR 0.5829 0.5793 0.5914 0.6908 NORWAY KRONE 7.5530 7.5007 7.2630 6.6323 PORTUGAL ESCUDO 185.54 185.80 181.91 168.24 SINGAPORE DOLLAR 1.6509 1.7477 1.6518 1.4193 SOUTH AFRICA RAND 4.9337 4.9417 4.8706 4.4557 SOUTH KOREA WON 1628.42 1707.30 1494.04 868.39 SPAIN PESETA 153.61 153.93 150.46 141.85 SRI LANKA RUPEE 62.363 62.281 61.591 57.772 SWEDEN KRONA 8.0723 8.0193 7.7977 7.4069 SWITZERLAND FRANC 1.4631 1.4748 1.4393 1.4541 TAIWAN DOLLAR 32.948 34.117 32.502 27.554 THAILAND BAHT 45.987 52.983 44.309 25.957 *UNITED KINGDOM POUND 1.6408 1.6350 1.6597 1.6256 MEMO: **UNITED STATES DOLLAR 99.93 100.52 98.82 94.52 *VALUE IS U.S. DOLLARS **INDEX OF WEIGHTED AVERAGE EXCHANGE VALUE OF U.S. DOLLAR AGAINST CURRENCIES OF OTHER G-10 COUNTRIES. MARCH 1973 = 100. WEIGHTS ARE 1972-76 GLOBAL TRADE OF EACH OF THE 10 COUNTRIES. SERIES REVISED AS OF AUGUST 1978. FOR DESCRIPTION AND BACK DATA, SEE "INDEX OF THE WEIGHTED-AVERAGE EXCHANGE VALUE OF THE U.S. DOLLAR: REVISION" ON PAGE 700 OF THE AUGUST 1978 FEDERAL RESERVE BULLETIN. FOR INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR SUBSCRIPTION TO THIS RELEASE OR ABOUT RECEIVING IT IN DOCUMENT FORM, PLEASE CALL PUBLICATIONS SERVICES AT THE FEDERAL RESERVE BOARD AT (202) 452-3244.