When 2017 opened for business, the US dollar was worth 0.9486 against the euro. Two days later, it had leaped to 0.9629, so it started as it meant to go on. However, things don’t always continue as we would like them to. By the middle of January, the dollar had dropped to 0.9379.
Of course, a year is a long time in the currency world. Lots can happen in the space of a week. Unfortunately, by the end of January, the American currency was on the receiving end of some more troubling news, as it fell to 0.9298. With a loss of nearly two cents in the first month alone, the picture thus far wasn’t looking too good.
February had its ups and downs, to be sure, but the dollar finally got the better of the European single currency this time. It ended the month in better shape on 0.9436. However, the currency was far from out of trouble and there were worse results yet to come. The dollar ended up slipping to 0.9353 by the end of March, although it had dipped lower than this during the month, so we should be grateful for this small mercy at least.
There were no such small mercies in the following month though. This soon became clear with the euro fighting to gain ground against the American dollar. It managed to do just that, too, as it pushed the currency back to a month-ending rate of 0.9149. This meant it had lost over two cents in April, and nearly three and a half cents since the start of the year.
And there was more bad news to come as well. The overall pattern was by now clear as one of losses. While there were occasional good results, the overall trend was down. This was seen once again during May, which ended with the US dollar on 0.8911 against the euro. And once again the trend continued into the summer, with a rate of 0.8762 recorded to close out June. By now, the question was how much more ground would be lost, rather than could be lost. The answer was sobering to read, as the dollar fell further to 0.8527 by the end of July. Moving ahead to the end of August, we see a lower figure of 0.8456 and no end in sight to the drops.
Finally, though, we saw a mild improvement to finish September, with an exchange rate of 0.8470 in place. At the time of writing, another improvement has been noted, as 23rd October ended on 0.8517. However, this still represents a loss of over 10 cents since the start of the year. Is there any way the US dollar can recoup that degree of losses before the year is out?