G.5(405) February 26, 1999 FOREIGN EXCHANGE RATES THE TABLE BELOW SHOWS THE AVERAGE RATES OF EXCHANGE IN FEBRUARY 1999 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 1999 1999 1998 1998 COUNTRY UNIT February January December February *AUSTRALIA DOLLAR 0.6399 0.6320 0.6182 0.6744 AUSTRIA SCHILLING N.A. N.A. 11.746 12.735 BELGIUM FRANC N.A. N.A. 34.44 37.42 BRAZIL REAL 1.9261 1.5120 1.2052 1.1273 CANADA DOLLAR 1.4977 1.5194 1.5433 1.4334 CHINA, P.R. YUAN 8.2755 8.2789 8.2780 8.3072 DENMARK KRONE 6.6379 6.4194 6.3531 6.9089 *EMU MEMBERS EURO 1.1203 1.1591 N.A. N.A. *EURO COMMUNITY ECU N.A. N.A. 1.1756 1.0893 FINLAND MARKKA N.A. N.A. 5.0769 5.4999 FRANCE FRANC N.A. N.A. 5.5981 6.0744 GERMANY D. MARK N.A. N.A. 1.6698 1.8123 GREECE DRACHMA 287.41 278.91 280.43 286.70 HONG KONG DOLLAR 7.7490 7.7486 7.7471 7.7412 INDIA RUPEE 42.53 42.55 42.59 39.01 *IRELAND POUND N.A. N.A. 1.4876 1.3771 ITALY LIRA N.A. N.A. 1653.23 1788.28 JAPAN YEN 116.67 113.29 117.07 125.85 MALAYSIA RINGGIT 3.8000 3.8000 3.8014 3.8148 MEXICO PESO 10.006 10.128 9.907 8.502 NETHERLANDS GUILDER N.A. N.A. 1.8816 2.0432 *NEW ZEALAND DOLLAR 0.5435 0.5388 0.5223 0.5829 NORWAY KRONE 7.7240 7.4532 7.6050 7.5530 PORTUGAL ESCUDO N.A. N.A. 171.19 185.54 SINGAPORE DOLLAR 1.7004 1.6791 1.6515 1.6509 SOUTH AFRICA RAND 6.1146 5.9931 5.9030 4.9337 SOUTH KOREA WON 1188.84 1175.11 1213.22 1628.42 SPAIN PESETA N.A. N.A. 142.08 153.61 SRI LANKA RUPEE 69.069 68.629 68.117 62.363 SWEDEN KRONA 7.9532 7.8188 8.0716 8.0723 SWITZERLAND FRANC 1.4272 1.3856 1.3604 1.4631 TAIWAN DOLLAR 32.564 32.300 32.337 32.948 THAILAND BAHT 37.137 36.622 36.276 45.987 *UNITED KINGDOM POUND 1.6276 1.6498 1.6708 1.6408 VENEZUELA BOLIVAR 577.32 569.80 565.89 515.42 MEMO: UNITED STATES DOLLAR 1)BROAD JAN97=100 116.37 114.68 114.56 114.69 2)MAJOR CURRENCY MAR73=100 93.76 92.37 93.40 95.39 3)OITP JAN97=100 130.83 128.98 126.80 123.62 This release is available online at http://www.federalreserve.gov/release/. For more information on exchange rate indexes for the U.S. dollar, see "New Summary Measures of the Foreign Exchange Value of the Dollar," Federal Reserve Bulletin, vol. 84 (October 1998), pp. 811-18 (http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/bulletin/) and "Index of the Weighted-Average Exchange Value of the U.S. Dollar: Revision," Federal Reserve Bulletin, vol. 64 (August 1978), p. 700. Weights for broad index can be found at http://www.federalreserve.gov/; weights for the major currencies index and the other important trading partners (OITP) index are derived from the broad index weights. * Value is U.S. dollars. 1) A weighted average of the foreign exchange value of the U.S. dollar against the currencies of a broad group of major U.S. trading partners. 2) A weighted average of the foreign exchange value of the U.S. dollar against a subset of the broad index currencies that circulate widely outside the country of issue. 3) A weighted average of the foreign exchange value of the U.S. dollar against a subset of the broad index currencies that do not circulate widely outside the country of issue. For information about your subscription to this release or about receiving it in document form, please call publication services at Federal Reserve Board at (202) 452-3244. As of January 1, 1999, the euro is reported in place of the individual eure-area currencies. These currency rates can be derived from the euro rate by using the fixed conversion rates (in currencies per euro) given below: 1 EUR = 13.7603 AUSTRIAN SCHILLINGS = 40.3399 BELGIAN FRANCS = 5.94573 FINNISH MARKKAS = 6.55957 FRENCH FRANCS = 1.95583 GERMAN MARKS = .787564 IRISH POUNDS = 1936.27 ITALIAN LIRE = 40.3399 LUXEMBOURG FRANCS = 2.20371 NETHERLANDS GUILDERS = 200.482 PORTUGUESE ESCUDOS = 166.386 SPANISH PESETAS