Monday, October 13, 2003

Look out below

This pre-Iraq war article about the relationship between oil, the dollar and the euro is one of many that suggest that there is an international move afoot to loosen the longstanding tie between oil pricing and the dollar, such that a shift to pricing (and selling) oil for euros could start a dramatic decline in the value of the dollar by diminishing its importance as the currency in which international reserves are held. Venezuela, as well as some middle eastern countries (Iraq, before the war, among them) had begun to price its oil in euros. And now, the world's second largest exporter (after Saudi Arabia), namely our good old buddy Russia, may be considering doing so.
The current exchange rate between the euro and the dollar is 1/1.17, that is, one euro buys $1.17, which is near an all-time high of about $1.18 reached last June. It will be interesting to see what this latest news about Russian oil (if it's effected) will do to the relationship between the currencies.

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