The appreciation of “drachma” in the years of the euro!

Aristotle Vassilakis
As we wrote yesterday, the drachma is closer than ever…
To see how “good” he did in the Greek economy, the Greek drachma will make a brief analysis of the exchange rate drachma / dollar exchange rate. Even in the years of the Euro!!! (based on the locked rate drachma – euro).
In 1981, with about 50 drachmas, I could have bought a dollar, and approximately 25 drachmas a mark. Until 1990 he needed 200 drachmas to buy a dollar and approximately 100 for one mark. Ten years later, in 2000, a dollar cost about 400 drachmas, and a mark of more than 150.
You will tell me that the rate was moving normally against two major international currencies, the dollar and the mark, however this was completely normal, since the Greek economy was always among the weakest of Europe.
On the 1st January 2002 the drachma was replaced by the euro at the rate of 1e = 340,75 drachmas. Although the connection of the two currencies had already become by the year 2000, the abolition of the drachma took place on the 01/01/02 and from then on, the euro is the Greek currency and the rates of the other currencies of the world are as to the euro in the ‘free’ floating international exchange rate system, influencing decisively the Greek economy.
A little more than 8 years later, in March 2011, the euro has appreciated against the dollar by 57,02%. As the drachma retained substantially the rate 340,75/1 with the euro and the euro appreciated by 57,02% against the dollar, this means that the drachma appreciated against the dollar at the same rate. However, this has not happened again in modern monetary history, as well as the Greek multi-annual horizon always recorded a fall against the dollar, the economy of Greece is weaker than that of the USA.
In addition, as the rate of mark locked against the euro, just as they had with the drachma, the drachma remained unchanged against the German mark and in the same manner and to the French, the Italian and other EU currencies. Even this, however, was to happen again in modern monetary history. Finally, as the chinese currency is pegged to the dollar and the euro appreciated against the dollar, Greece became more expensive, and towards China in 57,02% from 2002 until March 2011.
Thus, while the Greek economy has learned to survive throughout the course of the previous century, having a cheap, over competitive, currency, in the first decade of the new century had learned to survive by having the most expensive currency in the world and a currency that has become more and more expensive.

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