The value of a currency is decided in accordance with the worth of another currencies i.e. just how much of another currency can be purchased by one unit of your home currency. valutis kursi Generally speaking, this is the exchange rate with this currency pair and it fluctuates over time with currencies gaining or losing value against each other. Each time a currency reduces its value against other currencies, this process is known as devaluation.
Devaluation is a natural process in the history of financial markets. All currencies witness their currency rates falling and rising and if 10 British pounds could buy, say, 20 U.S. dollars last year, today the pound might be devalued and its purchasing power would only be adequate to buy only 15 dollars. In comparison to market devaluation, governments around the world sometimes resort to devaluation as an instrument to safeguard their trade balances. Thus, the local currency is forcedly devalued and its currency rates against other major currencies is reduced while restrictions in many cases are imposed avoiding the home currency from being exchanged at higher rates.
These kind of government intervention in the foreign exchange market certainly are a perfect exemplory case of official devaluation as the natural market devaluation is frequently known as depreciation, an activity once the currency rates fluctuate downwards. In both cases, the nation whose currency is devaluated could benefit form the lower cost of its export of goods, which now are cheaper to buy by customers in countries whose currencies are stronger. The annals of trade recalls many types of intentional devaluation with the goal of conquering new markets through the lower currency rates of the devalued currency.
Among the biggest devaluation waves ever was in the 1930s when at the very least nine of the leading world economies devalued their national currencies, including Australia, France, Italy, Japan and the United States. Throughout the Great Depression, every one of these nations chose to abandon the gold standard and to devalue their currencies by as much as 40%, which helped revive their economies and stabilised currency rates.
Meanwhile, Germany, which lost the Great War a decade earlier, was burdened to pay strenuous war reparations and intentionally provoked an activity of hyperinflation in the country. Thus, the Germans witnessed the biggest ever devaluation of these national currency and the currency rates hit rock bottom. During those times, the currency rate of the German mark to the U.S. dollar stood at several million or billion marks per dollar. On another hand, this devaluation helped the German government in covering its debts to the war winners although the typical Germans paid a disastrous price for this government policy.
The governments around the world in many cases are tempted to reduce unnaturally the currency rates to be able to take advantage of the lower value of the national currency. The reduced currency value encourages exports and discourages imports improving the country’s trade deficit and imbalances. However, the typical citizen of a nation with a recently devalued currency could have problems with higher prices of imported goods and overseas holiday costs.
