Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Myanmar Currency - Kyats


An exchange rate between two countries is back to back connection with the values of the countries' currencies. One country's currency is controlled by its monetary policy.
Monetary policy is a managing process to supervise the supply of money, the availability of money, and the cost of money or the rate of interest to attain a set of objectives oriented towards the growth and stability of the economy. In monetary policy, expansionary policy is traditionally used to try to combat unemployment in a recession by lowering interest rates in the hope that easy credit will entice businesses into expanding. Contractionary policy is intended to slow inflation in hopes of avoiding the resulting distortions and deterioration of asset values.
For many centuries there were only two forms of monetary policy: (i) Decisions about coinage; (ii) Decisions to print paper money to create credit.
In general, the central banks in many developing countries have poor records in managing monetary policy. This is often because the monetary authority in a developing country is not independent of government, so good monetary policy takes a backseat to the political desires of the government or is used to pursue other non-monetary goals. For this and other reasons, developing countries that want to establish credible monetary policy may institute a currency board or adopt dollarization.
Since 1852 in Burma (Myanmar), the silver coin with the royal peacock seal was introduced as the first coin. And then the denominations were gradually changed from coinage to paper money. Starting from 1953 until now, "kyat" was denominated as Myanmar currency.
Reviewing on Myanmar currency, it is worthless in comparison to the other countries' currency. Why? Because of two principal reasons.
Under a system of fiat fixed rates, the local government or monetary authority declares a fixed exchange rate but does not actively buy or sell currency to maintain the rate. Instead, the rate is enforced by non-convertibility measures (e.g. capital controls, import/export licenses, etc.). In this case there is a black market exchange rate where the currency trades at its market/unofficial rate.
Under dollarization, foreign currency (usually the US dollar) is used freely as the medium of exchange either exclusively or in parallel with local currency. This outcome can come about because the local population has lost all faith in the local currency, or it may also be a policy of the government (usually to rein in inflation and import credible monetary policy).

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