Are you an EPFL student looking for a semester project?
Work with us on data science and visualisation projects, and deploy your project as an app on top of GraphSearch.
Concept
Exchange rate
Summary
In finance, an exchange rate is the rate at which one currency will be exchanged for another currency. Currencies are most commonly national currencies, but may be sub-national as in the case of Hong Kong or supra-national as in the case of the euro.
The exchange rate is also regarded as the value of one country's currency in relation to another currency. For example, an interbank exchange rate of 131 Japanese yen to the United States dollar means that ¥131 will be exchanged for or that will be exchanged for ¥131. In this case it is said that the price of a dollar in relation to yen is ¥131, or equivalently that the price of a yen in relation to dollars is $1/131.
Each country determines the exchange rate regime that will apply to its currency. For example, a currency may be floating, pegged (fixed), or a hybrid. Governments can impose certain limits and controls on exchange rates. Countries can also have a strong or weak currency. There is no agreement in the economic literature on the optimal national exchange rate policy (unlike on the subject of trade where free trade is considered optimal). Rather, national exchange rate regimes reflect political considerations.
In floating exchange rate regimes, exchange rates are determined in the foreign exchange market, which is open to a wide range of different types of buyers and sellers, and where currency trading is continuous: 24 hours a day except weekends (i.e. trading from 20:15 GMT on Sunday until 22:00 GMT Friday). The spot exchange rate is the current exchange rate, while the forward exchange rate is an exchange rate that is quoted and traded today but for delivery and payment on a specific future date.
In the retail currency exchange market, different buying and selling rates will be quoted by money dealers. Most trades are to or from the local currency. The buying rate is the rate at which money dealers will buy foreign currency, and the selling rate is the rate at which they will sell that currency.
Official source
About this result
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.
Related publications (9)
Related people (1)
Related courses (30)
FIN-523: Global business environment
This course gives the framework and tools for understanding economic events, taking financial decisions and evaluating investment opportunities in a global economy. It builds up an integrated model of
MGT-200: Economic thinking
This course introduces frameworks and tools for understanding the economic dimensions of the world we live in. The course includes applications to real-world situations and events. Assessment is throu
HUM-471: Economic growth and sustainability I
This course examines growth from various angles: economic growth, growth in the use of resources, need for growth, limits to growth, sustainable growth, and, if time permits, population growth and gro