Bretton Woods Exchange Rate System (1944) In 1944, as World War II drew toward a close, the Allied Powers met at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, in order to create a new post-war international monetary system. The Bretton Woods Agreement, implemented in 1946, whereby each member government pledged to maintain a fixed, or pegged, exchange rate for its currency vis-Ă -vis the dollar or gold. These fixed exchange rates were supposed to reduce the riskiness of international transactions, thus promoting growth in world trade. The Bretton Woods Agreement established a US dollar-based international monetary system and provide for two new institutions, The IMF and the World Bank. The IMF aids countries with balance of payments and exchange rate problems. The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank) helped post-war reconstruction and since then has supported general economic development. The IMF was the key institution in the new international monetary system, and Continue reading
Exchange Rate System
Detailed information about The Gold Standard Exchange Rate System
The Gold Standard (1876 â 1913): A system of setting currency values whereby the participating countries commit to fix the prices of their domestic currencies in terms of a specified amount of gold. The gold standard as an international monetary system gained acceptance in Western Europe in the 1870s. The United States was something of a latecomer to the system, not officially adopting the standard until 1879. The rules of the game under the gold standard were clear and simple. Each country set the rate at which its currency (paper or coin) could be converted to a weight of gold. The United States, for example, declared the dollar to be convertible to gold at a rate of $20.67/ounce of gold (a rate in effect until the beginning of World War 1). The British pound was pegged at ÂŁ4.2474/ounce of gold. As long as both currencies were freely convertible into gold, Continue reading
The Bretton Woods System â Background, Design and Reasons for Collapse
Since the beginning of the 19th century, globalization, international trade and free trade between countries became the new economic order and several attempts have been made since then to develop policies and schemes to ensure the stability of the international monetary system. It is safe to say that in truth, the world economy has never been in a state of utopia, but nevertheless, we have never stopped trying to attain such. The Bretton Woods era of 1944 to 1977, one of the few fairly successful schemes the world powers created in trying to achieve economic utopia, though existed for a short period, has been accredited as being one of the most successful international monetary systems, so impressive was the economic stability and growth of the era that there have been ongoing talks for a comeback of the system. Background of the Bretton Woods System At the end of the World Continue reading
Is there an Optimal Exchange Rate Regime?
Starting from the gold standard regime of fixed rates, passing through the adjustable peg system after the Second World War, it has finally ended up with a system of managed floats after 1973. Since 1985, the pendulum has started swinging, though very slowly and erratically, in the direction of introducing some amount of fixity and rule based management of exchange rates. Despite these empirical facts, there is a school of thought within the professional which argues that in the years to come there will be only two types of exchange rate regimes: truly fixed rate arrangements like currency unions or currency boards, or truly market determined, independently floating exchange rates. The âmiddle groundâ â regimes such as adjustable pegs, crawling pegs, crawling bands and managed floating â will pass into history. Some analysts even predict that three currency blocks â the US dollar block, the Euro block and the Yen Continue reading
The Current Scenario of Exchange Rate Regimes
Now the IMF classifies member countries into eight categories according to the Exchange rate regime they have adopted. A brief summary of IMFâs classification is given below: 1. No Separate Legal Tender Arrangement This group includes a) Countries which are members of a currency union and share a common currency like the twelve members of the European Currency Union (ECU), who have adopted Euro as their common currency or b) Countries which have adopted the currency of another country as their currency. IMFâs 1999 Annual Report on Exchange Arrangements and Exchange Restrictions indicates that 37 countries belong to this category. 2. Currency Board Arrangement A regime under which there is a legislative commitment to exchange the domestic currency against a specific foreign currency at a fixed exchange rate coupled with restrictions on the monetary authority to ensure that this commitment will be honored. This implies constraints on the ability of Continue reading
Exchange Rate Regimes: The Bretton Woods System
Bretton Woods is the name of the town in the state of New Hampshire, USA, where the delegations from over forty five countries met in 1944 to deliberate on proposals for a post-war international monetary system. The two main contending proposals were âthe White planâ named after Harry Dexter White of the US Treasury and the âKeynes planâ whose architect was Lord Keynes of the UK. Following the Second World War, policy makers from victorious allied powers, principally the US and UK, took up the task of thoroughly revamping the world monetary system for the non-communist world. The outcome was the so called âBretton Woods Systemâ and the birth of new supra-national institutions, the International Monetary Fund (the IMF or simply the âFundâ) and the World Bank. Under this system US Dollar was the only currency that was fully convertible to gold; where other countries currencies were not directly convertible Continue reading