Exchange rates
Starting in the third quarter of 2014, the dominant trend on foreign exchange markets has been the appreciation of the United States dollar. This trend has been fuelled by expectations that the Fed’s monetary policy stance would increasingly diverge from that of other major central banks, notably the ECB and BoJ. The recent dollar strength has been broadly based, with considerable gains against the euro, the Japanese yen, the pound sterling and most emerging market currencies. The dollar index, which measures the value of the dollar relative to a basket of six developed-economy currencies, reached a four-year high in early November 2014 (figure I.7).8
Against the euro, the dollar gained more than 10 per cent between May and November, climbing from 1.39 to 1.25 dollar/euro, after trading in a fairly narrow range in early 2014. The strong adjustment since May 2014 reflects a growing divergence in the economic performance and the monetary policies between the two areas. Faced with a slumping euro area economy and the threat of deflation, the ECB has taken additional steps to loosen monetary policy, including a further reduction of its main policy rates and the expansion of unconventional policies. The Fed, by contrast, ended its quantitative easing programme in October 2014 and appears set to increase interest rates by mid-2015, amid robust growth prospects and positive labour market trends. As this divergence is expected to continue in the forecast period, the dollar is assumed to strengthen further against the euro, although much more slowly than in the third quarter of 2014.
The dollar also appreciated notably against the Japanese yen in the third quarter of 2014, moving from 101 yen/dollar in July to a seven-year high of 115 yen/dollar in early November. As with the euro area, this appreciation largely reflects different monetary policy paths, as the BoJ expanded its quantitative and qualitative easing programme in late October 2014. The yen is expected to stay relatively weak in 2015 before appreciating slightly in 2016 as the BoJ starts to normalize its monetary policy.