An overview of floating rates versus fixed rates
The exchange rate, or price at which one currency can be exchanged for another, is the focal point of all activity on the currency markets. In other words, it refers to how much a foreign currency is worth in terms of your own.
When visiting another nation, you must “purchase” the local money. The exchange rate is the cost at which you can purchase that currency, just like the price of any other asset. For instance, if you are traveling to Egypt and the exchange rate for U.S. dollars is 1:5.5 Egyptian pounds, it implies that you can get five and a half Egyptian pounds for every U.S. dollar.
Theoretically, the exchange rate should keep the intrinsic worth of one currency relative to the other, so equivalent assets should sell for the same price in various nations.
While floating exchange rates allow prices to fluctuate depending on market factors, principally supply and demand, fixed exchange rates guarantee that two currencies will always be exchanged at the same price.
A Fixed Rate
A fixed rate, often known as a pegged rate, is the official exchange rate set and maintained by the government (central bank). A predetermined price will be compared to a significant world currency.
The central bank purchases and sells its own currency on the foreign exchange market in exchange for the currency to which it is tied in order to maintain the local exchange rate.
The central bank will need to make sure that it can supply the market with dollars if, for instance, it is judged that the value of one unit of local currency is equal to $3 in the United States. The central bank must retain a significant amount of foreign reserves in order to keep the rate steady.
This is a set aside sum of foreign currency that the central bank has on hand and can employ to inject (or absorb) extra money into the market. This guarantees a suitable money supply, suitable market fluctuations (inflation/deflation), and eventually a suitable exchange rate. The official exchange rate may also be modified by the central bank if needed.
Floating Rate
A floating exchange rate, as contrast to a fixed rate, is decided by the private market using supply and demand. Given that any disparities in supply and demand will be immediately adjusted in the market, a floating rate is frequently referred to as “self-correcting.”
Consider the following streamlined model: if a currency is in low demand, its value will drop, increasing the cost of imports while increasing demand for local products and services. More jobs will be created as a result, which will cause the market to automatically correct itself. A floating exchange rate is one that fluctuates frequently.
No currency is completely fixed or floating in reality. Market pressures can also affect fluctuations in the currency rate under a fixed system. Sometimes an underground market (which is more indicative of actual supply and demand) may develop when a local currency reflects its genuine worth against its pegged currency.
The activities of the black market will then frequently come to an end as a result of a central bank being forced to revalue or devalue the official rate in order to bring it into line with the unofficial one.
When it is important to maintain stability and prevent inflation in a floating regime, the central bank may also step in to help; however, this happens less frequently.
Particular Considerations
There was an international fixed exchange rate from 1870 until 1914. The four major industrial powers—Germany, Britain, France, and the United States—put this into action. The value of the local currency was fixed at a predetermined exchange rate to gold ounces since currencies were tied to gold.
The gold standard was referred to as this. This allowed for free capital mobility as well as financial and trade stability on a worldwide scale; nonetheless, the gold standard was abandoned with the outbreak of World War I.
The “Bretton Woods Conference” created the fundamental laws and guidelines governing international commerce in 1944 as part of an initiative to create economic stability around the world and boost trade. As a result, a global monetary system, represented by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), was founded to foster international trade and preserve national monetary stability and, by extension, the stability of the world economy.
It was decided that currencies would once more be fixed, or tied, to the U.S. dollar, which was then pegged to gold at a price of $35 per ounce. As a result, a currency’s value was directly correlated with the value of the US dollar.
Therefore, if you needed to purchase Japanese yen, the exchange rate would be expressed in US dollars, whose value was based on the price of gold. A nation might ask the IMF to change the pegged value of its currency if it needed to modify the value of its own money.
The peg was kept in place until 1971, when the U.S. dollar lost its ability to support the fixed price of $35 per ounce of gold.
Major governments switched to a floating system after that, and all efforts to return to a global peg were ultimately abandoned in 1985. Since that time, no significant economy has reverted to a peg, and gold has no longer been used as a peg at all.
