The worthiness of a currency is set relative to the worth of the other currencies i.e. how much of the other currency are available by one unit of your home currency. In general, this is the exchange rate of the currency pair and it fluctuates as time passes with currencies gaining or losing value against each other. Each time a currency reduces its value against other currencies, this process is named devaluation.

Devaluation is an all 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 this past year, today the pound might be devalued and its purchasing power would only be enough to buy only 15 dollars. In contrast to promote devaluation, governments around the globe sometimes resort to devaluation as a tool to safeguard their trade balances. Thus, the area currency is forcedly devalued and its currency rates against other major currencies is reduced while restrictions in many cases are imposed preventing the home currency from being exchanged at higher rates.

These kinds of government intervention in the foreign exchange market really are a perfect exemplory instance of official devaluation whilst the natural market devaluation is often called depreciation, a process when 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. evros kursi The annals of trade recalls many examples of intentional devaluation with the purpose of conquering new markets through the lower currency rates of the devalued currency.

Among the biggest devaluation waves ever sold was in the 1930s when at the least nine of the leading world economies devalued their national currencies, including Australia, France, Italy, Japan and the United States. Throughout the Great Depression, all 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 ten years earlier, was burdened to cover strenuous war reparations and intentionally provoked a process of hyperinflation in the country. Thus, the Germans witnessed the biggest ever devaluation of these national currency and the currency rates hit rock bottom. At that time, the currency rate of the German mark to the U.S. dollar stood at several million or billion marks per dollar. On the other hand, this devaluation helped the German government in covering its debts to the war winners although the common Germans paid a disastrous price with this government policy.

The governments around the globe in many cases are tempted to reduce unnaturally the currency rates to be able to benefit from the lower value of the national currency. The low currency value encourages exports and discourages imports improving the country’s trade deficit and imbalances. However, the common citizen of a country with a recently devalued currency could suffer from higher prices of imported goods and overseas holiday costs.