Dollar versus euro

Not long after the introduction of the euro (€ ; ISO 4217 code EUR) as a cash currency in 2002, the dollar began to depreciate steadily in value.As U.S. trade and budget deficits continued to increase, the euro started rising in value. By December 2004, the dollar had fallen to new lows against all major currencies; the euro rose above $1.36/€ (under €0.74/$) for the first time, in contrast to previous lows in early 2003 (€0.87/$). In the first quarter of 2004 the U.S. dollar, with the advantage of Federal Reserve's policy of raising the interest rates, regained some standing against all major currencies, climbing from €0.78/$ to €0.84/$. However, all gains were lost in the second half of 2004, and the dollar stood at €0.74/$ at the end of 2004. Since 2002, the only year in which the dollar actually recovered against the euro was 2005. Although some analysts previewed the dollar dropping as far as $1.60/€ (€0.63/$), it finished 2005 with an increase against the euro, climbing to €0.83/$. An interest rate reduction by the Federal Reserve on September 18, 2007, raised the euro's value significantly and caused the dollar to fall below €0.70 one month later, to new record lows.Economists like Alan Greenspan suggest that another reason for the continued fall of the dollar is its decreasing role as the world's reserve currency. Jim Rogers declared that he thinks the dollar's value will fall even further, especially against the Chinese yuan. Chinese officials signaled plans to diversify the nation's $1.9 trillion reserve in response to a falling U.S. currency which also set the dollar under pressure. However, a sharp turnaround occurred in late 2008 with the global financial crisis, with the dollar and Japanese yen rising against most world currencies. One reason to this might be that the dollar was regarded as safe-haven and therefore got stronger during the initial phase of the global financial crisis. As a result of the recent global financial crisis, China, the biggest foreign owner of U.S. Treasury securities, and other countries such as India and Russia are backing away from the dollar to diversify their securities. The dollar has rebounded to near multi-year highs as of May 2010 on weakness in the European monetary union which has put pressure on central banks to reinvest in the dollar and away from euros.