G.5(405) March 31, 1999 FOREIGN EXCHANGE RATES THE TABLE BELOW SHOWS THE AVERAGE RATES OF EXCHANGE IN MARCH 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 1999 1998 COUNTRY UNIT March February January March *AUSTRALIA DOLLAR 0.6308 0.6399 0.6320 0.6696 AUSTRIA SCHILLING N.A. N.A. N.A. 12.852 BELGIUM FRANC N.A. N.A. N.A. 37.70 BRAZIL REAL 1.9057 1.9261 1.5120 1.1334 CANADA DOLLAR 1.5176 1.4977 1.5194 1.4166 CHINA, P.R. YUAN 8.2792 8.2755 8.2789 8.3076 DENMARK KRONE 6.8287 6.6379 6.4194 6.9661 *EMU MEMBERS EURO 1.0886 1.1203 1.1591 N.A. *EURO COMMUNITY ECU N.A. N.A. N.A. 1.0853 FINLAND MARKKA N.A. N.A. N.A. 5.5467 FRANCE FRANC N.A. N.A. N.A. 6.1257 GERMANY D. MARK N.A. N.A. N.A. 1.8272 GREECE DRACHMA 296.36 287.41 278.91 306.05 HONG KONG DOLLAR 7.7493 7.7490 7.7486 7.7458 INDIA RUPEE 42.52 42.53 42.55 39.57 *IRELAND POUND N.A. N.A. N.A. 1.3672 ITALY LIRA N.A. N.A. N.A. 1799.07 JAPAN YEN 119.47 116.67 113.29 129.08 MALAYSIA RINGGIT 3.8000 3.8000 3.8000 3.7456 MEXICO PESO 9.732 10.006 10.128 8.568 NETHERLANDS GUILDER N.A. N.A. N.A. 2.0598 *NEW ZEALAND DOLLAR 0.5345 0.5435 0.5388 0.5726 NORWAY KRONE 7.8151 7.7240 7.4532 7.5833 PORTUGAL ESCUDO N.A. N.A. N.A. 187.03 SINGAPORE DOLLAR 1.7292 1.7004 1.6791 1.6188 SOUTH AFRICA RAND 6.2136 6.1146 5.9931 4.9746 SOUTH KOREA WON 1229.72 1188.84 1175.11 1489.36 SPAIN PESETA N.A. N.A. N.A. 154.95 SRI LANKA RUPEE 69.570 69.069 68.629 62.083 SWEDEN KRONA 8.2144 7.9532 7.8188 7.9677 SWITZERLAND FRANC 1.4660 1.4272 1.3856 1.4901 TAIWAN DOLLAR 33.165 32.564 32.300 32.524 THAILAND BAHT 37.557 37.137 36.622 41.366 *UNITED KINGDOM POUND 1.6213 1.6276 1.6498 1.6619 VENEZUELA BOLIVAR 580.06 577.32 569.80 521.68 MEMO: UNITED STATES DOLLAR 1)BROAD JAN97=100 117.80 116.37 114.68 114.36 2)MAJOR CURRENCY MAR73=100 95.69 93.76 92.37 95.83 3)OITP JAN97=100 131.03 130.83 128.98 122.07 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