G.5(405) August 31, 1999 FOREIGN EXCHANGE RATES THE TABLE BELOW SHOWS THE AVERAGE RATES OF EXCHANGE IN AUGUST 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 August July June August *AUSTRALIA DOLLAR 0.6446 0.6562 0.6563 0.5888 AUSTRIA SCHILLING N.A. N.A. N.A. 12.574 BELGIUM FRANC N.A. N.A. N.A. 36.85 BRAZIL REAL 1.8859 1.8023 1.7669 1.1717 CANADA DOLLAR 1.4932 1.4890 1.4695 1.5346 CHINA, P.R. YUAN 8.2772 8.2776 8.2780 8.3100 DENMARK KRONE 7.0144 7.1792 7.1643 6.8067 *EMU MEMBERS EURO 1.0605 1.0370 1.0377 N.A. *EURO COMMUNITY ECU N.A. N.A. N.A. 1.1035 FINLAND MARKKA N.A. N.A. N.A. 5.4340 FRANCE FRANC N.A. N.A. N.A. 5.9912 GERMANY D. MARK N.A. N.A. N.A. 1.7869 GREECE DRACHMA 307.84 313.52 312.49 301.21 HONG KONG DOLLAR 7.7638 7.7603 7.7575 7.7494 INDIA RUPEE 43.50 43.36 43.21 42.84 *IRELAND POUND N.A. N.A. N.A. 1.4037 ITALY LIRA N.A. N.A. N.A. 1763.01 JAPAN YEN 113.23 119.33 120.72 144.68 MALAYSIA RINGGIT 3.8000 3.8000 3.8000 4.2036 MEXICO PESO 9.398 9.370 9.515 9.371 NETHERLANDS GUILDER N.A. N.A. N.A. 2.0148 *NEW ZEALAND DOLLAR 0.5259 0.5261 0.5325 0.5011 NORWAY KRONE 7.8036 7.9029 7.8749 7.7248 PORTUGAL ESCUDO N.A. N.A. N.A. 182.99 SINGAPORE DOLLAR 1.6787 1.6958 1.7107 1.7571 SOUTH AFRICA RAND 6.1302 6.1182 6.0880 6.3198 SOUTH KOREA WON 1198.31 1189.10 1168.91 1314.29 SPAIN PESETA N.A. N.A. N.A. 151.72 SRI LANKA RUPEE 71.868 71.912 71.211 66.642 SWEDEN KRONA 8.2589 8.4431 8.5065 8.1282 SWITZERLAND FRANC 1.5093 1.5474 1.5374 1.4933 TAIWAN DOLLAR 32.076 32.338 32.525 34.730 THAILAND BAHT 38.060 37.143 36.925 41.720 *UNITED KINGDOM POUND 1.6058 1.5751 1.5950 1.6342 VENEZUELA BOLIVAR 615.95 611.17 603.29 571.88 MEMO: UNITED STATES DOLLAR 1)BROAD JAN97=100 116.46 117.48 117.45 120.14 2)MAJOR CURRENCY MAR73=100 94.74 96.78 96.56 100.96 3)OITP JAN97=100 129.26 128.26 128.56 127.77 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