G.5A(405)                                                       January 4, 1999





               THE TABLE BELOW SHOWS THE AVERAGE RATES OF EXCHANGE IN 1998 TOGETHER
               WITH COMPARABLE FIGURES FOR OTHER YEARS. AVERAGES ARE BASED ON DAILY NOON BUYING
               RATES FOR CABLE TRANSFERS IN NEW YORK CITY CERTIFIED FOR CUSTOMS PURPOSES BY
               THE FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF NEW YORK.


                                                    (RATES IN CURRENCY UNITS PER DOLLAR)


                                 MONETARY
                  COUNTRY          UNIT         1998         1997         1996         1995

               *AUSTRALIA        DOLLAR          0.6291       0.7437       0.7828       0.7407
                AUSTRIA          SCHILLING      12.379       12.206       10.589       10.076
                BELGIUM          FRANC          36.31        35.81        30.97        29.47
                BRAZIL           REAL            1.1605       1.0779       1.0051       0.9162
                CANADA           DOLLAR          1.4836       1.3849       1.3638       1.3725
                CHINA,P.R.       YUAN            8.3008       8.3193       8.3389       8.3700
                DENMARK          KRONE           6.7030       6.6092       5.8003       5.5999
               *EURO COMMUNITY   ECU             1.1224       1.1300       1.2520       1.2941
                FINLAND          MARKKA          5.3473       5.1956       4.5948       4.3763
                FRANCE           FRANC           5.8995       5.8393       5.1158       4.9864
                GERMANY          D. MARK         1.7597       1.7348       1.5049       1.4321
                GREECE           DRACHMA       295.70       273.28       240.82       231.68
                HONG KONG        DOLLAR          7.7467       7.7431       7.7345       7.7357
                INDIA            RUPEE          41.36        36.36        35.51        32.42
               *IRELAND          POUND           1.4248       1.5163       1.5995       1.6035
                ITALY            LIRA         1736.85      1703.81      1542.76      1629.45
                JAPAN            YEN           130.99       121.06       108.78        93.96
                MALAYSIA         RINGGIT         3.9254       2.8173       2.5154       2.5073
                MEXICO           PESO            9.152        7.918        7.600        6.447
                NETHERLANDS      GUILDER         1.9837       1.9525       1.6863       1.6044
               *NEW ZEALAND      DOLLAR          0.5361       0.6625       0.6877       0.6563
                NORWAY           KRONE           7.5521       7.0857       6.4594       6.3355
                PORTUGAL         ESCUDO        180.25       175.44       154.28       149.88
                SINGAPORE        DOLLAR          1.6722       1.4857       1.4100       1.4171
                SOUTH AFRICA     RAND            5.5417       4.6072       4.3011       3.6284
                SOUTH KOREA      WON          1400.40       950.77       805.00       772.69
                SPAIN            PESETA        149.41       146.53       126.68       124.64
                SRI LANKA        RUPEE          65.005       59.026       55.289       51.047
                SWEDEN           KRONA           7.9522       7.6446       6.7082       7.1406
                SWITZERLAND      FRANC           1.4506       1.4514       1.2361       1.1812
                TAIWAN           DOLLAR         33.547       28.775       27.468       26.495
                THAILAND         BAHT           41.262       31.072       25.359       24.921
               *UNITED KINGDOM   POUND           1.6573       1.6376       1.5607       1.5785
                VENEZUELA        BOLIVAR       548.39       488.39       417.19       174.85

                MEMO:
                UNITED STATES    DOLLAR
              1)BROAD            JAN97=100     116.25       104.47        97.43        92.52
              2)MAJOR CURRENCY   MAR73=100      96.52        91.85        85.23        81.39
              3)OITP             JAN97=100     125.70       104.67        98.25        92.51
              4)G-10             MAR73=100      98.85        96.38        87.34        84.25

               This release is available online at http://www.federalreserve.gov/release/.

               For more information on exchange rate indexes for the U.S. dollar, see "New Summary Measures
               of the Foreign Exchange Value of the Dollar," Federal Reserve Bulletin, vol. 84 (October 1998),  
               pp. 811-18 (http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/bulletin/) and "Index of the Weighted-Average
               Exchange Value of the U.S. Dollar: Revision," Federal Reserve Bulletin, vol. 64 (August 1978),
               p. 700. Weights for broad index can be found at http://www.federalreserve.gov/; weights for
               the major currencies index and the other important trading partners (OITP) index are derived
               from the broad index weights.

               *  Value is U.S. dollars.
               1) A weighted average of the foreign exchange value of the U.S. dollar against the currencies
               of a broad group of major U.S. trading partners.
               2) A weighted average of the foreign exchange value of the U.S. dollar against a subset of
               the broad index currencies that circulate widely outside the country of issue.
               3) A weighted average of the foreign exchange value of the U.S. dollar against a subset of
               the broad index currencies that do not circulate widely outside the country of issue.
               4) A weighted average of the foreign exchange value of the U.S. dollar against the currencies
               of the other G-10 countries. We will discontinue publication of this series after December 1998

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               please call publication services at Federal Reserve Board at (202) 452-3244.

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