The dollar is a rather frequent topic of conversation among economically and financially inclined Dopers, so here are a few figures on how the U.S. currency performed in 2004 for the edification of anyone who’s feeling bored. It’s not a pretty story.
The dollar was last year’s worst performer among the 17 “primary currencies” defined by Bloomberg - that is to say, all of the other 16 primary currencies rose against the dollar. Even the Mexican peso, which eked out a gain of 0.7%. The best performer against the dollar was the South African rand, up 18%, followed by the South Korean won (+15%) and Norwegian krone (+9.6%). The best-performing major currency was the Swiss franc (+8.7%), while the euro advanced 7.6%.
Outside of the primary currencies, the Polish zloty (+24%) and Colombian peso (+18%) climbed further against the dollar than the rand. (I rounded the peso and rand gains.)
The U.S. currency did rise against some of its counterparts last year, although the ones that did worse were a motley crew that includes the Pakistani rupee (-3.7%) and Venezuelan bolivar (-17%). And pity those poor Zimbabweans, whose dollar slid 85% against the U.S. currency in 2004.