WOCU
The World Currency Unit WOCU is a standardized basket of currencies: the national currencies of the 20 largest national economies measured by GDP. The basket is reweighted semi annually according to the relative growth of the economies, whereby constituent currencies are replaced by other currencies should the size of the GDP be overtaken by that of another national economy. To provide a consistent calculation algorithm, the GDP figures used are those issued by the International Monetary Fund bi-annually, as part of its World Economic Outlook forecast.[1]
The WOCU algorithm is independently monitored by the WDX Institute, a not-for-profit research body established to further academic research on World Currency Baskets.
Conceived initially as a private sector and apolitical global alternative to the European Currency Unit, it is used to price commodities such as bunker fuel and as a reference currency for global investors and companies seeking to mitigate bilateral exchange rate volatility.[2]
Contents
Symbol
The currency's symbol comprises a Capital W within a circle. This characterizes the WOCU as a global, all encompassing currency.
The relative value of the WOCU
Since September 10, 2009 the value of the WOCU has been calculated in real-time 24 hours per day 7 days per week and the weighting of the basket is now being adjusted on the third Thursday of May and November each year.
Indicative Spot FX rates
| Currency | 21.02.2011 | 12.12.2014 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| USD | 1.7407 | 1.5514 | 12.2% |
| EUR | 1.2726 | 1.2459 | 2.1% |
| CNY | 11.4305 | 9.6019 | 19.0% |
| JPY | 144.72 | 183.65 | -21.2% |
| BRL | 2.8983 | 4.1095 | -29.5% |
| GBP | 1.0730 | 0.9870 | 8.7% |
| RUB | 50.7099 | 88.8573 | -42.9% |
| CAD | 1.7103 | 1.7906 | -4.5% |
| INR | 78.2473 | 96.8992 | -19.2% |
| AUD | 1.7250 | 1.8761 | -8.1% |
| MXN | 20.9956 | 22.9853 | -8.7% |
| KRW | 1949.32 | 1709.40 | 14.0% |
| IDR | 15384.62 | 19230.77 | -20.0% |
| TRY | 2.7716 | 3.5547 | -22.0% |
| CHF | 1.6159 | 1.4962 | 8.0% |
| SAR | 6.4045 | 5.8223 | 10.0% |
| PLN | 5.0085 | 5.2001 | -3.7% |
See also
- Special drawing rights
- Bancor
- European Currency Unit
- Ven (currency)
- World currency unit
- World currency
- WDX Institute
References
- Coats, Warren (1989) "In Search of a Monetary Anchor : A 'New' Monetary Standard", IMF Working Paper No. 89/82.
- Staff of the International Monetary Fund (2009) "World Economic Outlook, October 2009: Sustaining the Recovery", October 15, 2009
- Kang, Shi, Juanyi Xu (2008) "The Optimal Currency Basket with Input Currency and Output Currency", HKIMR Working Paper No. 17/2008
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External links
- Wocu
- WDX Institute dedicated to research on world currency baskets
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