Since its first day of trading on 4 January 1999 the euro's exchange rate - until very recently - did nothing but fall, except for some short breaks. By mid-July it had already lost a seventh of its initial external value of 1.1789 dollars and at an exchange rate of 1.0124 (on 12. 7.99) it was hovering around the 'magical' mark of 1:1. Against sterling, the yen, the Swedish and the Norwegian crowns, the Canadian, Australian and New Zealand dollars too, the euro went down - in some cases quite considerably. Its effective exchange rate in the same period dropped by 8 per cent. This was not the result of a 'strong dollar'; we were clearly dealing with a weak euro. Its rate, however, recovered to 1.0621 on 27 July. Some observers even expect the euro to reach 1.10 dollars in the near future.
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