G.5(405) January 31, 1999 FOREIGN EXCHANGE RATES THE TABLE BELOW SHOWS THE AVERAGE RATES OF EXCHANGE IN JANUARY 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 1998 1998 1998 COUNTRY UNIT January December November January *AUSTRALIA DOLLAR 0.6320 0.6182 0.6349 0.6566 AUSTRIA SCHILLING N.A. 11.746 11.840 12.765 BELGIUM FRANC N.A. 34.44 34.71 37.54 BRAZIL REAL 1.5120 1.2052 1.1932 1.1199 CANADA DOLLAR 1.5194 1.5433 1.5404 1.4409 CHINA, P.R. YUAN 8.2789 8.2780 8.2778 8.3094 DENMARK KRONE 6.4194 6.3531 6.3960 6.9190 *EMU MEMBERS EURO 1.1591 N.A. N.A. N.A. *EURO COMMUNITY ECU N.A. 1.1756 1.1681 1.0869 FINLAND MARKKA N.A. 5.0769 5.1163 5.5006 FRANCE FRANC N.A. 5.5981 5.6422 6.0832 GERMANY D. MARK N.A. 1.6698 1.6827 1.8165 GREECE DRACHMA 278.91 280.43 282.64 287.24 HONG KONG DOLLAR 7.7486 7.7471 7.7432 7.7425 INDIA RUPEE 42.55 42.59 42.43 39.39 *IRELAND POUND N.A. 1.4876 1.4777 1.3819 ITALY LIRA N.A. 1653.23 1664.91 1787.87 JAPAN YEN 113.29 117.07 120.29 129.55 MALAYSIA RINGGIT 3.8000 3.8014 3.8000 4.4093 MEXICO PESO 10.128 9.907 9.968 8.227 NETHERLANDS GUILDER N.A. 1.8816 1.8969 2.0472 *NEW ZEALAND DOLLAR 0.5388 0.5223 0.5340 0.5793 NORWAY KRONE 7.4532 7.6050 7.4562 7.5007 PORTUGAL ESCUDO N.A. 171.19 172.52 185.80 SINGAPORE DOLLAR 1.6791 1.6515 1.6378 1.7477 SOUTH AFRICA RAND 5.9931 5.9030 5.6511 4.9417 SOUTH KOREA WON 1175.11 1213.22 1294.01 1707.30 SPAIN PESETA N.A. 142.08 143.05 153.93 SRI LANKA RUPEE 68.629 68.117 67.578 62.281 SWEDEN KRONA 7.8188 8.0716 8.0140 8.0193 SWITZERLAND FRANC 1.3856 1.3604 1.3852 1.4748 TAIWAN DOLLAR 32.300 32.337 32.603 34.117 THAILAND BAHT 36.622 36.276 36.527 52.983 *UNITED KINGDOM POUND 1.6498 1.6708 1.6611 1.6350 VENEZUELA BOLIVAR 569.80 565.89 569.66 507.68 MEMO: UNITED STATES DOLLAR 1)BROAD JAN97=100 114.66 114.56 115.34 116.29 2)MAJOR CURRENCY MAR73=100 92.39 93.40 94.23 96.37 3)OITP JAN97=100 128.89 126.80 127.31 125.98 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