Yesterday I heppened into a jewelry shop and looked at a non-date Rolex Submariner. (Trying to gauge how much my '70s-vintage one would sell for now.) To my surprise the price was more than 50% higher than my GMT II was when I bought it, and the GMT II’s MSRP has gone up by almost 50% as well in the past year and is more than double what I paid for mine years ago.
Granted, prices rise. But how much of the increase is due to the fallen dollar? I haven’t priced cars recently, but the general impression that I have is that they are not greatly more expensive now than a couple of years ago. (Correct me if my impression is mistaken.) I noticed that a new Royal Enfield motorcycle is more expensive than a couple of years ago, by about 20%. Some of that may be due to higher demand for motorcycles as well as normal inflation; though I suspect the exchange rate counts as well. I don’t buy appliances or other consumer items much, so I don’t know how their prices are.
So how much is the exchange rate affecting the cost of imported items in the U.S.?