Currency rates (added every week or two).

[griffin]

It's been almost 6 months since my last update posting here... I didn't realise it had been that long, as it certainly didn't feel like it.

Funnily enough, two of the currencies are almost exactly the same as last August. But the bad news is that Aussie Dollar hasn't strengthened against any of these five currencies in the last six months, which still makes importing toys as expensive as it was last year.

As of today, according to xe.com, these are the current rates for AU$1...

- US$ - 0.7271 (almost the same as last August)
- GB£ - 0.5537 (down 2 pence from last August)
- JP¥ - 79.083 (down 1.5 yen from last August)
- EU€ - 0.6325 (almost the same as last August)
- NZ$ - 1.0517 (down 5 cents from last August)

(bank and paypal rates are 2-3% less than the figures above)

[griffin]

Just looking at the exchange rate charts on xe.com, January 2nd-3rd saw a massive crash to the AU$, against the yen and US$. The yen dropped to 73, while the US$ rate got down to 68us cents... the lowest in ten years. (a 6% crash in a matter of minutes would send many smaller countries into financial crisis or spiral into hyper-inflation as everyone tries to sell off their cash before it is worthless - I'm surprised that I didn't hear anything about it on the news that day)
Both of those rates to the AU$ have mostly recovered in the weeks since, but some speculate that the AU$ will return to those levels during 2019 (we lost about 12% value during 2018 - from 82us cents to 72us cents, so the downward trend is likely to continue).
Other analysts believe that we've reached the bottom of the current trough, and will start the upward part of the cycle again soon.

[griffin]

It's been almost 6 months since my last update posting here... I didn't realise it had been that long, as it certainly didn't feel like it.

How time flies... I can't believe it has been 8 months since I last updated this, but it doesn't feel like it was that long ago.

We are down on just about everything since the beginning of the year, except New Zealand, which seems to yoyo up and down about 5 cents every few months.
The US Fed Reserve had dropped the rates by 0.25 this week, which I had thought would have weakened their dollar a little (as there is a smaller return for investors), but it still strengthened against ours during the week (which probably means our currency and economy is just so unreliable at the moment that the US economy is still more inviting).
The drop in Yen and US$ in the last year is likely to result in higher prices for toys here, especially the imported exclusives.

As of today, according to xe.com, these are the current rates for AU$1...

- US$ - 0.6769 (down 3 cents since end of January)
- GB£ - 0.5424 (down 1 pence since end of January)
- JP¥ - 72.811 (down 6 yen since end of January)
- EU€ - 0.6146 (down 2 cents since end of January)
- NZ$ - 1.0815 (up 3 cents since end of January)

(bank and paypal rates are 2-3% less than the figures above)

[griffin]

As of today, according to xe.com, these are the current rates for AU$1...

- US$ - 0.6839 (slightly up since end of September)
- GB£ - 0.5206 (down 2 pence since end of September)
- JP¥ - 74.269 (up 1.5 yen since end of September)
- EU€ - 0.6185 (almost the same as the end of September)
- NZ$ - 1.0418 (down 4 cents since end of September)

(bank and paypal rates are 2-3% less than the figures above)

[griffin]

With all of the hits to our economy in the last couple of months, the Aussie Dollar has weakened a lot against the major currencies, and is pretty much steady with the NZ dollar.

As of today, according to xe.com, these are the current rates for AU$1...

- US$ - 0.6537 (down 3 cents so far this year)
- GB£ - 0.5907 (down 7 pence so far this year)
- JP¥ - 70.830 (down 3.5 yen so far this year)
- EU€ - 0.5906 (down almost 3 cents so far this year)
- NZ$ - 1.0474 (up a little bit this year)

(bank and paypal rates are 2-3% less than the figures above)