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How exchange rates have changed in the past year

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MoneyTransfers.com calculated the average exchange rates change from September 2021 to 2022 using International Monetary Fund data.
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How exchange rates have changed in the past year

In recent months the U.S. Federal Reserve has increased interest rates to combat inflation. The increase has strengthened the dollar, impacted global interest rates, and pressured central banks in other countries to raise their interest rates—most notably Great Britain.

MoneyTransfers.com calculated the change in exchange rates from September 2021 to September 2022 using data from the International Monetary Fund. All amounts are recorded in U.S. dollars. Exchange rates are calculated as the U.S. price of a foreign currency.

Exchange rates have mainly increased from the year before, except in Mexico, Australia, and some European countries. Many currencies worldwide are weakening due to the dollar being considered a safe haven by investors facing volatile economic times. The U.S.-China trade war, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the resulting U.S. and allied governments’ sanctions, COVID-19 restrictions, oil price fluctuations, and food commodity spikes have all impacted the value of global currencies. Currencies pegged to other currencies—such as those pegged at a fixed rate to the euro—have gone down in value.

Keep reading to learn more about how exchange rates have changed in the past year.

Bar chart showing exchange rates in African countries

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Africa

Due to half of international trade being invoiced in U.S. dollars, a stronger dollar hurts consumers worldwide who pay for imports using dollars, including importers in Africa. This rise in the dollar is due to the Fed’s aggressive hikes in interest rates and investors seeing the dollar as a safe haven asset. Additionally, the currencies of 14 African countries are pegged at a fixed rate to the euro, so their currencies are directly affected by euro depreciation.

The Botswana pula has gone down because the country is aiming to increase its export competitiveness. The pandemic has reduced the South Africa-bordering country’s diamond exports—an essential part of its economy—to such an extent that its president called on Botswana leaders to diversify commodity exports.

In September, the South African rand weakened as the value of the U.S. dollar stayed high due to expectations that the Fed would continue hiking interest rates. The South African currency dropped significantly earlier this year due to catastrophic floods. Additionally, South Africa has faced uncertainty over the country’s general elections, continued concerns regarding the funding needs of state-owned enterprises, and global factors, such as stagnant gold prices. South Africa is the 10th largest gold exporter in the world. As a member of the BRICS coalition (which stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa), South Africa has sought to reduce the dollar’s share in its trade with China and other countries.

The COVID-19 pandemic potentially resurging in South African cities also hurts the rand’s prospects as wide-scale disruptions could stall economic recovery and growth, as does the Fed’s hawkish policy shifting investment inflows from commodities, including gold, to Treasuries. In response to the raising of interest rates by the U.S. Federal Reserve, South Africa lifted interest rates to 6.25% in September.

Bar chart showing exchange rates in Asian countries

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Asia

The Fed raising interest rates also impacted Asian countries, causing the U.S. dollar to rise higher than their currencies. The Singapore dollar, however, has not been hit nearly as hard by this change, according to economists, due to their central bank making a pre-emptive policy move to help Singapore keep up with inflationary pressure.

In February 2022, the value of the Russian ruble went down significantly, by almost 30%, amid tough U.S., U.K., and EU sanctions put into place after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. However, Russia has defended the ruble with some success since then, as sanctions have not seriously hurt Russian natural gas and oil exports. Russia also bolstered the ruble by demanding more gas payments from its trade partners.

Due to China’s costly Covid-Zero strategy of rolling lockdowns and the Fed’s intense interest rate hikes to battle inflation, the Chinese yuan has gone down in value. The Japanese yen has also plunged to a value lower than it has been in 24 years compared to the dollar due to central banks raising interest rates in response to increasing inflation attributed to the Russia-Ukraine War, including the U.S. Fed and the Bank of Japan. 

In Southeast Asia, the Thai bhat, Malaysian ringgit, and Philippine peso have also not been immune to the repercussions from rising interest rates within the U.S., and have also seen a fall in value.

Bar chart showing exchange rates in Middle Eastern countries

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Middle East

Countries across the Middle East have also been impacted by the Fed raising its interest rates significantly, making the depreciation of their currencies more extreme and worsening inflation issues.

However, some of the oil and gas-exporting Gulf countries’ central banks have raised their interest rates, too, including those in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Kuwait. 

One of the reasons the Israeli new shekel has become weaker against the U.S. dollar is the U.S. stock markets’ decline, which causes an issue for Israeli financial institutions that have invested in these markets as their dollar exposure falls. This situation compels these institutions to sell shekels and buy dollars on the foreign exchange market to maintain their pre-determined exposure levels.

Because the Omani rial, Qatari riyal, Saudi Arabian riyal, and UAE dirham are all pegged to the U.S. dollar, their currency exchange rates have not changed. Countries in the Middle East do this for stability, as these oil-rich nations need the U.S. and China to remain significant trading partners.

In reaction to the Fed raising rates, the UAE and Saudi Arabia have raised interest rates.

Bar chart showing exchange rates in European countries

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Europe

For months, the U.S. exchange rate with the 19-nation eurozone has been falling—to the point where, when it hit U.S. dollar parity, the common European currency was the weakest since its debut over 20 years ago. The reasons for this drop include European—mainly German—energy dependence on Russian pipeline gas. There are growing fears in Europe of a severe recession worsened by energy shortages, causing factory shutdowns and employee furloughs for EU industries this winter. The Danish krone pegged to the euro through a fixed exchange rate is why its change in value is the same.

The value of the British pound has plunged so dramatically that it was, on Sept. 7, 2022, the weakest it had been, adjusted for inflation compared to the dollar since 1985. This drop in value is due to a looming global recession, combined with surging British and EU inflation. There are also concerns that public stimulus spending and tax cuts proposed by Prime Minister Liz Truss’ new government could exacerbate inflation pressures.

The dollar is stronger than the Norwegian krone, likely due to the Eurozone economy weakening, oil price fluctuations—Norway is a major oil and gas exporter—and changes, respectively, in the countries’ interest rates.

The Swedish krona and the Swiss franc also fall behind the dollar because of the Fed aggressively raising rates. Investors have traditionally viewed the Swiss franc as a safe haven due to two centuries of Swiss neutrality and, until recent years, strict banking secrecy laws. But even as one of the wealthiest countries in the world, Switzerland is not immune from European gas shortages and is being forced to conserve energy this winter.

In reaction to the U.S. Federal Reserve raising rates, the Bank of England increased interest rates by half a point. The European Central Bank will likely continue to raise rates. Norway and Switzerland have also raised rates, as has Sweden’s central bank.

Bar chart showing exchange rates in North America and Oceania

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North America & Oceania

The value of the Canadian dollar has gone down dramatically. On Sept. 16, 2022, it fell to the lowest level in nearly two years. Data from the U.S. demonstrated its core inflation rate continues to go up. And while economic data from another nation isn’t usually enough to tank a country’s currency, the seriousness of the inflation problem has impacted the Canadian dollar.

Additionally, the Canadian dollar is showing relative weakness because of an overheated housing market in Canada’s leading cities, such as Toronto and Vancouver, along with weakening oil prices.

An emerging market economy that has heavily borrowed in dollars often experiences its currency going down dramatically in value when the dollar appreciates, which is why the value of the Mexican peso has dropped. Mexico experienced a peso crisis parallel with a higher interest rate Fed policy bolstering the U.S. dollar in the early ’80s and again in the mid-’90s.

The Australian dollar has gone down because of its risk sensitivity as the market mood sours—and the New Zealand dollar has gone down because of investors having a risk-off mood.

New Zealand and Canada have been raising interest rates aggressively in recent weeks to stem inflation, including in their highly priced housing sectors. Australia has also been regularly raising rates.

Bar chart showing exchange rates in South American countries

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South America

Though it was slightly up at the beginning of September, the Chilean peso’s value has decreased for many reasons. Chile is the world’s leading copper exporter, a highly volatile commodity associated with industrial and housing construction demand for metal worldwide. Chileans have recently experienced political instability, with voters rejecting a new constitution in early September. That followed the government agreeing in August to a credit line deal with the International Monetary Fund.

The Brazilian real appreciated significantly in 2022 because of increased interest rate differentials with developed markets and other emerging economies, rebalancing investments, and rising commodity prices. The commodities that rose in price were oil, agricultural products such as coffee, and industrial metals.

When these commodities have increased in price in the past, they have usually benefited net commodity exporters like Brazil. But a highly inflationary global environment paired with higher dollar borrowing costs can create a whipsaw effect even for commodity-rich exporters.

This story originally appeared on MoneyTransfers.com and was produced and
distributed in partnership with Stacker Studio.

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Import costs in these industries are keeping prices high

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Machinery Partner used Bureau of Labor Statistics data to identify the soaring import costs that have translated to higher costs for Americans.  
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Inflation has cooled substantially, but Americans are still feeling the strain of sky-high prices. Consumers have to spend more on the same products, from the grocery store to the gas pump, than ever before.

Increased import costs are part of the problem. The U.S. is the largest goods importer in the world, bringing in $3.2 trillion in 2022. Import costs rose dramatically in 2021 and 2022 due to shipping constraints, world events, and other supply chain interruptions and cost pressures. At the June 2022 peak, import costs for all commodities were up 18.6% compared to January 2020.

While import costs have since fallen most months—helping to lower inflation—they remain nearly 12% above what they were in 2020. And beginning in 2024, import costs began to rise again, with January seeing the highest one-month increase since March 2022.

Machinery Partner used Bureau of Labor Statistics data to identify the soaring import costs that have translated to higher costs for Americans. Imports in a few industries have had an outsized impact, helping drive some of the overall spikes. Crop production, primary metal manufacturing, petroleum and coal product manufacturing, and oil and gas extraction were the worst offenders, with costs for each industry remaining at least 20% above 2020.


A multiline chart showing the change in import costs in four major product industries.

Machinery Partner

Imports related to crops, oil, and metals are keeping costs up

At the mid-2022 peak, import costs related to oil, gas, petroleum, and coal products had the highest increases, doubling their pre-pandemic costs. Oil prices went up globally as leaders anticipated supply disruptions from the conflict in Ukraine. The U.S. and other allied countries put limits on Russian revenues from oil sales through a price cap of oil, gas, and coal from the country, which was enacted in 2022.

This activity around the world’s second-largest oil producer pushed prices up throughout the market and intensified fluctuations in crude oil prices. Previously, the U.S. had imported hundreds of thousands of oil barrels from Russia per day, making the country a leading source of U.S. oil. In turn, the ban affected costs in the U.S. beyond what occurred in the global economy.

Americans felt this at the pump—with gasoline prices surging 60% for consumers year-over-year in June 2022 and remaining elevated to this day—but also throughout the economy, as the entire supply chain has dealt with higher gas, oil, and coal prices.

Some of the pressure from petroleum and oil has shifted to new industries: crop production and primary metal manufacturing. In each of these sectors, import costs in January were up about 40% from 2020.

Primary metal manufacturing experienced record import price growth in 2021, which continued into early 2022. The subsequent monthly and yearly drops have not been substantial enough to bring costs down to pre-COVID levels. Bureau of Labor Statistics reporting shows that increasing alumina and aluminum production prices had the most significant influence on primary metal import prices. Aluminum is widely used in consumer products, from cars and parts to canned beverages, which in turn inflated rapidly.

Aluminum was in short supply in early 2022 after high energy costs—i.e., gas—led to production cuts in Europe, driving aluminum prices to a 13-year high. The U.S. also imposes tariffs on aluminum imports, which were implemented in 2018 to cut down on overcapacity and promote U.S. aluminum production. Suppliers, including Canada, Mexico, and European Union countries, have exemptions, but the tax still adds cost to imports.

U.S. agricultural imports have expanded in recent decades, with most products coming from Canada, Mexico, the EU, and South America. Common agricultural imports include fruits and vegetables—especially those that are tropical or out-of-season—as well as nuts, coffee, spices, and beverages. Turmoil with Russia was again a large contributor to cost increases in agricultural trade, alongside extreme weather events and disruptions in the supply chain. Americans felt these price hikes directly at the grocery store.

The U.S. imports significantly more than it exports, and added costs to those imports are felt far beyond its ports. If import prices continue to rise, overall inflation would likely follow, pushing already high prices even further for American consumers.

Story editing by Shannon Luders-Manuel. Copy editing by Kristen Wegrzyn.

This story originally appeared on Machinery Partner and was produced and
distributed in partnership with Stacker Studio.

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The states where people pay the most in car insurance premiums

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Cheap Insurance compiled a ranking of the states where people pay the most in full-coverage car insurance premiums using MarketWatch data.
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Nearly every state requires drivers to carry car insurance, but the laws vary, and many factors affect the cost of coverage.

Some are controllable, at least to degrees: the type of car you have and your credit history. Some are not: your age and gender. Your marital status, place of residence, and claims history are among the other variables that go into it.

Across the United States, premiums are soaring, rising 20% year over year and increasing six times faster than consumer prices overall as of December 2023, CBS reported. Last September, CNN noted that car insurance rates jumped more in the previous year than they had since 1976.

CBS pointed to many potential reasons for these increases in prices. Coronavirus pandemic-era issues have made buying, fixing, and replacing vehicles costlier. Extreme weather events caused by climate change also damage more vehicles, while insurance companies are increasing their business costs. Severe and more frequent crashes are to blame as well, CNN reported.

On top of these, local factors such as population density, the number of uninsured drivers, and the frequency of insurance claims all affect premiums, which can lead motorists to change or switch their coverage, use other modes of transportation, or even alter decisions about when to buy a vehicle or what to look for.

To see how geography affects cost, Cheap Insurance mapped the states where people pay the most in car insurance premiums using MarketWatch data. Premium estimates were based on full-coverage car insurance for a 35-year-old driver with good credit and a clean driving record. Data accurate as of February 2024.


A heat map showing full-coverage car insurance premiums across the US

Cheap Insurance

Americans pay $167 per month on average for full-coverage insurance

There are common denominators among the five states where it’s most expensive to have car insurance: Michigan, Florida, Louisiana, Nevada, and Kentucky. Washington D.C. is another pricey locale, ranking #4 overall.

Three of these six are no-fault jurisdictions and require additional coverage beyond coverage to pay for medical costs. Michigan notably calls for $250,000 in personal injury protection (though people with Medicaid and Medicare may qualify for lower limits), $1 million in personal property insurance for damage done by your car in Michigan, and residual bodily injury and property damage liability that starts at $250,000 for a person harmed in an accident.

Other commonalities between these states include high urban population densities. At least 9 in 10 people in Nevada, Florida, and Washington D.C. live in cities and urban areas, which leads to more crashes and thefts and high rates of uninsured drivers and lawsuits. Additionally, Louisiana, Florida, and Kentucky rank #5, #8, and #10, respectively, in motor vehicle crash deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled in 2021 based on Department of Transportation data analyzed by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

A highway in Louisville.

Canva

#5. Kentucky

– Monthly full-coverage insurance: $210
– Monthly liability insurance: $57

A car driving through the desert and mountain scenery in Nevada.

Canva

#4. Nevada

– Monthly full-coverage insurance: $232
– Monthly liability insurance: $107

Cars parked on a street in New Orleans.

Canva

#3. Louisiana

– Monthly full-coverage insurance: $253
– Monthly liability insurance: $77

A bridge over turquoise water.

Canva

#2. Florida

– Monthly full-coverage insurance: $270
– Monthly liability insurance: $115

A truck on a highway surrounded by Fall foliage.

Canva

#1. Michigan

– Monthly full-coverage insurance: $304
– Monthly liability insurance: $113

Story editing by Carren Jao. Copy editing by Paris Close. Photo selection by Lacy Kerrick.

This story originally appeared on Cheap Insurance and was produced and
distributed in partnership with Stacker Studio.

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How businesses can protect themselves from the rising threat of deepfakes

Dive into the world of deepfakes and explore the risks, strategies and insights to fortify your organization’s defences

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In Billy Joel’s latest video for the just-released song Turn the Lights Back On, it features him in several deepfakes, singing the tune as himself, but decades younger. The technology has advanced to the extent that it’s difficult to distinguish between that of a fake 30-year-old Joel, and the real 75-year-old today.

This is where tech is being used for good. But when it’s used with bad intent, it can spell disaster. In mid-February, a report showed a clerk at a Hong Kong multinational who was hoodwinked by a deepfake impersonating senior executives in a video, resulting in a $35 million theft.

Deepfake technology, a form of artificial intelligence (AI), is capable of creating highly realistic fake videos, images, or audio recordings. In just a few years, these digital manipulations have become so sophisticated that they can convincingly depict people saying or doing things that they never actually did. In little time, the tech will become readily available to the layperson, who’ll require few programming skills.

Legislators are taking note

In the US, the Federal Trade Commission proposed a ban on those who impersonate others using deepfakes — the greatest concern being how it can be used to fool consumers. The Feb. 16 ban further noted that an increasing number of complaints have been filed from “impersonation-based fraud.”

A Financial Post article outlined that Ontario’s information and privacy commissioner, Patricia Kosseim, says she feels “a sense of urgency” to act on artificial intelligence as the technology improves. “Malicious actors have found ways to synthetically mimic executive’s voices down to their exact tone and accent, duping employees into thinking their boss is asking them to transfer funds to a perpetrator’s account,” the report said. Ontario’s Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence Framework, for which she consults, aims to set guides on the public sector use of AI.

In a recent Microsoft blog, the company stated their plan is to work with the tech industry and government to foster a safer digital ecosystem and tackle the challenges posed by AI abuse collectively. The company also said it’s already taking preventative steps, such as “ongoing red team analysis, preemptive classifiers, the blocking of abusive prompts, automated testing, and rapid bans of users who abuse the system” as well as using watermarks and metadata.

That prevention will also include enhancing public understanding of the risks associated with deepfakes and how to distinguish between legitimate and manipulated content.

Cybercriminals are also using deepfakes to apply for remote jobs. The scam starts by posting fake job listings to collect information from the candidates, then uses deepfake video technology during remote interviews to steal data or unleash ransomware. More than 16,000 people reported that they were victims of this scam to the FBI in 2020. In the US, this kind of fraud has resulted in a loss of more than $3 billion USD. Where possible, they recommend job interviews should be in person to avoid these threats.

Catching fakes in the workplace

There are detector programs, but they’re not flawless. 

When engineers at the Canadian company Dessa first tested a deepfake detector that was built using Google’s synthetic videos, they found it failed more than 40% of the time. The Seattle Times noted that the problem in question was eventually fixed, and it comes down to the fact that “a detector is only as good as the data used to train it.” But, because the tech is advancing so rapidly, detection will require constant reinvention.

There are other detection services, often tracing blood flow in the face, or errant eye movements, but these might lose steam once the hackers figure out what sends up red flags.

“As deepfake technology becomes more widespread and accessible, it will become increasingly difficult to trust the authenticity of digital content,” noted Javed Khan, owner of Ontario-based marketing firm EMpression. He said a focus of the business is to monitor upcoming trends in tech and share the ideas in a simple way to entrepreneurs and small business owners.

To preempt deepfake problems in the workplace, he recommended regular training sessions for employees. A good starting point, he said, would be to test them on MIT’s eight ways the layperson can try to discern a deepfake on their own, ranging from unusual blinking, smooth skin, and lighting.

Businesses should proactively communicate through newsletters, social media posts, industry forums, and workshops, about the risks associated with deepfake manipulation, he told DX Journal, to “stay updated on emerging threats and best practices.”

To keep ahead of any possible attacks, he said companies should establish protocols for “responding swiftly” to potential deepfake attacks, including issuing public statements or corrective actions.

How can a deepfake attack impact business?

The potential to malign a company’s reputation with a single deepfake should not be underestimated.

“Deepfakes could be racist. It could be sexist. It doesn’t matter — by the time it gets known that it’s fake, the damage could be already done. And this is the problem,” said Alan Smithson, co-founder of Mississauga-based MetaVRse and investor at Your Director AI.

“Building a brand is hard, and then it can be destroyed in a second,” Smithson told DX Journal. “The technology is getting so good, so cheap, so fast, that the power of this is in everybody’s hands now.”

One of the possible solutions is for businesses to have a code word when communicating over video as a way to determine who’s real and who’s not. But Smithson cautioned that the word shouldn’t be shared around cell phones or computers because “we don’t know what devices are listening to us.”

He said governments and companies will need to employ blockchain or watermarks to identify fraudulent messages. “Otherwise, this is gonna get crazy,” he added, noting that Sora — the new AI text to video program — is “mind-blowingly good” and in another two years could be “indistinguishable from anything we create as humans.”

“Maybe the governments will step in and punish them harshly enough that it will just be so unreasonable to use these technologies for bad,” he continued. And yet, he lamented that many foreign actors in enemy countries would not be deterred by one country’s law. It’s one downside he said will always be a sticking point.

It would appear that for now, two defence mechanisms are the saving grace to the growing threat posed by deepfakes: legal and regulatory responses, and continuous vigilance and adaptation to mitigate risks. The question remains, however, whether safety will keep up with the speed of innovation.

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