Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Chapter 05
Chapter 05
5 •Historical and
present uses of gold
•Developments
shaping the world
International Business
by Ball, McCulloch, Frantz,
Geringer, and Minor
McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Chapter Objectives
Understand the historical and present uses and attractiveness
of gold
Explain the developments shaping the world monetary system
Explain activities of the International Monetary Fund
Explain the purposes of the World Bank and its IFC
Understand balance of payments
Compare relative strengths and weaknesses of currencies
Identify the major foreign exchange markets of the world
Understand changes being caused in the FX markets
Understand the central reserve asset/national conflict of the
U.S. dollar
Discuss the euro and its present state of acceptance by EU
countries
5-2
Convertible Currencies
Currencies readily
convertible in the
market
Also called “hard”
currencies
Most developing
countries are not
convertible
5-3
Understand the historical and present uses and attractiveness
of gold
Gold Standard History
From about 120 to present price of gold generally up
Rise in value interrupted around 1980
Early 2002 gold regained safe haven status
Most trading and industrial countries adopted the
gold standard
Each country set a certain number of units of its
currency per ounce of gold
Comparison of the numbers of units from country to
country known as exchange rate
Gold standard ended during World War I
5-4
Explain the developments shaping the world monetary system
Bretton Woods and the Gold Exchange Standard
5-5
Bretton Woods and the Gold Exchange
Standard
To achieve its goals, the Bretton Woods Conference
established
The International Monetary Fund (IMF)
The IMF Articles of Agreement entered into force in
December 1945.
From 1945-1971, IMF agreement was the basis of the
international monetary system.
The US$ was agreed to be the only central reserve asset.
An ounce of gold was agreed to be worth US$35
5-6
Explain activities of the International Monetary Fund
5-7
Explain the purposes of the World Bank
World Bank
International Bank for Reconstruction and
Development (IBRD)
Consists of
International Finance Corporation (IFC)
International Development Association (IDA)
Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA)
International Center for Settlement of Investment
Disputes (ICSID)
Other Multilateral Development Banks
African, Asian, European, Inter-American
5-8
Bank for International Settlements
Located in Basel, Switzerland
Functions
5-9
Understand balance of payments
Balance of Payments
A country’s BOP is a very important indicator of
what may happen to the country’s economy.
If country’s BOP is in deficit
Inflation is often the cause.
A company doing business there must adjust its
pricing, inventory, accounting, and other practices to
inflationary conditions.
The government may take measures to deal with
inflation and the deficit.
5-10
Balance of Payments
Actions the government may
take to deal with inflation
and the BOP deficit include
Market measures
Devaluing the
currency
Nonmarket measures
Currency controls
Tariffs
Quotas
5-11
International Transactions
Debits involve payments by Credits involve payments by
domestic residents to foreign residents to
foreign residents domestic residents
Dividend, interest and
debt repayment services The BOP is presented as
double-entry accounting
Merchandise imports
statement
Transportation services
Foreign investments
Gifts to foreign residents
Total credits and
debits are always
Imports of gold
equal.
5-12
BOP Accounts
Current Account Official Reserves
Goods or merchandise Account
Gold imports and
Services
exports
Unilateral transfers
Increases or
Capital Account
decreases in foreign
Direct investments exchange held by
Portfolio investments government
Decreases or
Short-term capital
increases in
flows
liabilities to foreign
5-13
central banks
Balance of Payment Deficit
Temporary BOP deficit
Can be corrected by the
country’s monetary
policies or fiscal policies.
May be corrected by
short-term IMF loans and
advice.
Fundamental BOP deficit too
severe to be repaired by
monetary or fiscal policies
IMF permits countries’
currencies to be devalued
5-14
Gold Exchange Standard
Gold and dollars go abroad
From 1958 through 1971, United States cumulative
deficit was $56 billion.
Deficit was financed partly by use of the U.S. gold
reserves.
Deficit partly financed by incurring liabilities to foreign
central banks.
The gold standard ends
By 1971, many more dollars were in the hands of
foreign central banks than the gold held by the U.S.
Treasury could cover.
5-15
Currency Exchange Rates
Two attempts made to set fixed currency exchange
rates
December 1971 and February 1973
Speculators felt banks had pegged rates incorrectly
5-18
Experience with Floating
Fears that banking and money systems would not be
able to handle amounts and directions of currency
flows were unfounded
January 1999 new major currency, the euro, joined
the world market
Floating exchange rates create big uncertainties for
international business managers
Asian financial crisis in 1997 reduced Asian reliance
on U.S. economy
Forecasting float direction includes measuring
inflation with purchasing power parity (PPP)
5-19
Big MacCurrencies
5-20
Money Markets, Foreign Exchange
London is the world’s largest
foreign exchange market.
It has 30 percent share of
foreign exchange
turnover.
New York is the second
largest foreign exchange
market.
Asia, Tokyo, Hong Kong, and
Singapore are fighting for
foreign exchange supremacy
5-21
Money Markets, Foreign Exchange
Asian currencies are no longer Most traded currency US$
thought of as exotic since their Busiest currency trades
markets have emerged.
The more liquid currencies
US$ - euro first, then
include the US$ - yen
Singapore dollar
US$ - British sterling
Thai baht
US$ - Swiss franc
Indonesian rupiah
Malaysian ringgit
Euro – yen
Hong Kong dollar Virtually all Asian trade is
Singapore fourth largest through the US$
currency trading center Rates not quoted in US$ are
called cross rates
5-22
Special Drawing Rights (SDRs)
SDRs in the future
May be a step toward a truly international currency.
The US$ has been the closest thing to such a currency
since gold in the pre-WWI gold standard system.
The objective was to make the SDR the principal
reserve asset in the international monetary system.
Value based on a basked of four currencies
US dollar, euro, Japanese yen, British pound
Percentage of each changes periodically
Calculated daily by the IMF
5-23
Uses of SDR
The SDR’s value remains more stable than that of
any single currency.
Holders of SDRs include
The International Monetary Fund (IMF)
Most of the 181 members of the IMF
16 official institutions
These institutions typically regional development or
banking institutions prescribed by the IMF.
Not likely to become principal reserve asset
5-24
European Monetary System
European countries prefer
fixed exchange rates
EMS created in 1979
Replaced the snake with
a more flexible system
European Currency Unit
(ECU) established as
bookkeeping currency
more popular than the
SDR
Euro has replaced ECU and
12 national currencies
Euro is supervised by the
European Central Bank
5-25
Transition to the Euro
Began on January 1, 1999
Figure 5.6
Coins and notes of 12
countries replaced
Circulated side by side
until January 1, 2002
Exchanged old for new at
commercial banks
Twelve countries now called
the “eurozone”
All under European Central
Bank
5-26
Fast Facts on the IMF
Source: www.imf.org
Euro Coins
Euro coins have one common
side and one national side. They
can be used anywhere within the
euro area, regardless of the
country of issue.
There are coins in
denominations of €2, €1, 50 cent,
20 cent, 10 cent, 5 cent, 2 cent and
1 cent. There are 100 cent to €1.
Euro coins are also available for
Monaco, San Marino and Vatican
City (example).
Source: www.euro.gov.uk