G.5(405) January 2, 2009 FOREIGN EXCHANGE RATES THE TABLE BELOW SHOWS THE AVERAGE RATES OF EXCHANGE IN DECEMBER 2008 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. (Currency units per U.S. dollar except as noted) MONETARY 2008 2008 2008 2007 COUNTRY UNIT December November October December *AUSTRALIA DOLLAR 0.6719 0.6591 0.6870 0.8719 BRAZIL REAL 2.3956 2.2704 2.1810 1.7852 CANADA DOLLAR 1.2337 1.2171 1.1847 1.0021 CHINA, P.R. YUAN 6.8539 6.8281 6.8358 7.3682 DENMARK KRONE 5.5239 5.8448 5.6253 5.1235 *EMU MEMBERS EURO 1.3511 1.2744 1.3266 1.4559 HONG KONG DOLLAR 7.7504 7.7507 7.7588 7.7983 INDIA RUPEE 48.5132 48.8517 48.6155 39.3750 JAPAN YEN 91.2750 96.9656 99.9659 112.4490 MALAYSIA RINGGIT 3.5483 3.5843 3.5222 3.3324 MEXICO PESO 13.4167 13.1186 12.6593 10.8463 *NEW ZEALAND DOLLAR 0.5597 0.5664 0.6077 0.7690 NORWAY KRONE 7.0159 6.9290 6.4973 5.5000 SINGAPORE DOLLAR 1.4769 1.5076 1.4784 1.4487 SOUTH AFRICA RAND 9.9227 10.1112 9.7800 6.8376 SOUTH KOREA WON 1361.5727 1398.7044 1329.1877 931.0950 SRI LANKA RUPEE 111.4464 109.9594 108.1661 108.8910 SWEDEN KRONA 8.0124 7.9612 7.4435 6.4764 SWITZERLAND FRANC 1.1404 1.1910 1.1429 1.1402 TAIWAN DOLLAR 33.1555 33.1028 32.7025 32.4115 THAILAND BAHT 35.0086 35.0350 34.4209 30.1580 *UNITED KINGDOM POUND 1.4854 1.5327 1.6862 2.0161 VENEZUELA BOLIVAR 2.1446 2.1446 2.1446 2.1446 MEMO: UNITED STATES DOLLAR 1)BROAD JAN97=100 108.4748 109.6314 106.9513 99.2654 2)MAJOR CURRENCY MAR73=100 80.6853 82.7427 80.4186 73.6903 3)OITP JAN97=100 138.5069 137.9467 135.0857 126.9944 This release is available online at http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/G5. For more information on exchange rate indexes for the U.S. dollar, see "Indexes of the Foreign Exchange Value of the Dollar," Federal Reserve Bulletin, 91:1 (Winter 2005), pp. 1-8, (http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/bulletin/2005/winter05_index.pdf). Weights for the broad index can be found at http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/H10/Weights; weights for the major currencies index and the other important trading partners (OITP) index are derived from the broad index weights. The most recent annual revision to the trade weights and the dollar indexes took effect with the July 2008 release of this report. The source for exchange rates not listed in the table above but used in the calculation of the broad and OITP indexes is Bloomberg. * U.S. dollars per currency unit. 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. The euro is reported in place of the individual eure-area currencies. These currency rates can be derived from the dollar/euro rate by using the fixed conversion rates (in currencies per euro) given below: 1 EURO = 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 = 340.750 GREEK DRACHMAS = 239.640 SLOVENIAN TOLAR