I’m some kind of idiot when trying to understand exchange rates. Is the American dollar worth more or less than Australias?
As of today, an Australian dollar is worth 65 cents.
The US dollar is worth considerably more than the Aussie dollar.
-Oli
(That’s 65 U.S. cents, of course.)
Great, Thanks!
When I first visited the USA in 1976, the Australian dollar was fixed at US$1.16 believe it or not.
Since then, slowly the Australian economy has receded in relative terms. But interestingly, a teacher say, who earns $45,000 pa in the USA can live equally comfortably here in Australia on AUS $45,000 pa. The quality of lifestyle within Australia, excluding the exchange rate, is roughly on a par with the USA.
We have some pretty knowledgeable students of economics here amongst us - I’d love to read a quick lesson on why the relative worth of the Australian dollar has fallen from it’s 1976 high of $1.16.
Blame Keating.
The major reason the $A has fallen relative to the $US since the 80s is that the world prices of commodities that make up Australia’s major exports (broadacre agriculture, metals and coal) have fallen, whilst our domestic price level has not.
A great website for checking current exchange rates: http://www.xe.com/. The main page has most major currencies, and if you “Click for more currencies,” you can find all the less-common ones.
A good currency converter @ xe.com. . .
bah
beaten to it