Foreign Exchange Rates - H.10
Technical Q&As RSS Data Download
Q: What changes are implemented on June 24, 2019?
Posted: 05/28/2019
A: Effective June 24, 2019, the Federal Reserve Board staff will change the indexation of the daily series of the Broad, AFE, and EME dollar indexes. Currently, the value on January 2nd, 2006 is set to 100. After the revision, the monthly average of January 2006 will be set to 100, which matches the indexation of the monthly series. The re-indexed series will equal the current series multiplied with the following factors:
Broad: 1.014163
AFE: 1.017881
EME: 1.009396
Q: What changes are implemented on February 4, 2019?
Posted: 01/15/2019A: Effective on February 4, 2019, the Federal Reserve Board will change the methodology used to construct the trade-weighted dollar indexes in the H.10, G.5, and G.5A releases. These changes are designed to improve the alignment of the currency weights with current U.S. trade patterns, and the new index weights will be based on trades in both goods and services. In addition, the former Major index will be renamed the Advanced Foreign Economies (AFE) index, and the Other Important Trading Partners (OITP) index will be renamed the Emerging Market Economies (EME) index. For more information on the new methodology, see "Revisions to the Federal Reserve Dollar Indexes."
Q: How much historical data will be provided?
Posted: 01/15/2019A: The new dollar indexes will go back to (and be indexed to) January 2006. An estimate of the historic series under the new methodology going back to March 1973 is provided here.
Q: Will the old indexes be updated?
Posted: 01/15/2019A: The Federal Reserve Board will continue to release the old dollar indexes based solely on goods trade until December 31, 2019. We will refer to these indexes as "Broad - goods only", "Major - goods only", and "OITP - goods only". Country weights for these indexes will not be updated.
Q: How will the change to the dollar indexes affect mnemonics in the Data Download Program (DDP)?
Posted: 01/15/2019A: Until February 3, 2019, the exchange rate mnemonics (JRXWTFB_N, JRXWTFN_N, and JRXWTFO_N) will continue to refer to the old dollar indexes. Beginning February 4, 2019, these mnemonics will refer to the new dollar indexes.
To simplify this transition for data users, the old dollar indexes will be made available during the week of January 22, 2019 under mnemonics with V0 as a prefix (e.g. V0.JRXWTFB_N). These series will be updated until December 31, 2019. As a result, between these dates (January 22 to February 3), the old dollar indexes will be available under both mnemonics (e.g. V0.JRXWTFB_N and JRXWTFB_N). The table below explains when each mnemonic will contain each series.
| Mnmemonic | Series name until Feb 3 | Underlying series until Feb 3 | Series name on Feb 4 | Underlying series on Feb 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| JRXWTFB_N | Nominal Broad Dollar Index | Old dollar index (Broad) | Nominal Broad Dollar Index | New dollar index (Broad) |
| JRXWTFN_N | Nominal Major Currencies Dollar Index | Old dollar index (Major) | Nominal Advanced Foreign Economies Dollar Index | New dollar index (AFE) |
| JRXWTFO_N | Nominal Other Important Trading Partners Dollar Index | Old dollar index (OITP) | Nominal Emerging Markets Economies Dollar Index | New dollar index (EME) |
| V0.JRXWTFB_N | Nominal Broad Dollar Index – Goods Only | Old dollar index (Broad) | Nominal Broad Dollar Index – Goods Only | Old dollar index (Broad) |
| V0.JRXWTFN_N | Nominal Major Currencies Dollar Index – Goods Only | Old dollar index (Major) | Nominal Major Currencies Dollar Index – Goods Only | Old dollar index (Major) |
| V0.JRXWTFO_N | Nominal Other Important Trading Partners Dollar Index – Goods Only | Old dollar index (OITP) | Nominal Other Important Trading Partners Dollar Index – Goods Only | Old dollar index (OITP) |