The U.S. Dollar Index (USDX) is the creation of the New York Board of Trade (NYBOT). It was established in 1973 for tracking the value of the USD against a basket of currencies, which, at that time, represented the largest trading partners of the United States. It began with 17 currencies from 17 nations, but the launch of the euro subsumed 12 of these into one, so the USDX tracks only six currencies today.
| Currency units per U.S. dollar | |
|---|---|
| Weighting | |
| Euro | 57.6% |
| Japanese yen | 13.6% |
| Pound sterling | 11.9% |
| Canadian dollar | 9.1% |
| Swedish krona | 4.2% |
| Swiss franc | 3.6% |
| Source: NYBOT, " US Dollar Index", pg.3 (PDF) | |
The Index is described by the NYBOT as "a trade weighted geometric average".[22] The baseline of 100.00 on the USDX was set at its launch in March 1973. This event marks the watershed between the fixed-rate system of the Bretton Woods regime and the floating-rate system of the Smithsonian regime. Since then, the USDX has climbed as high as the 160s and drifted as low as the 70s.
The USDX has not been updated to reflect new trading realities in the global economy, where the bulk of trade has shifted strongly towards new partners like China and Mexico and oil-exporting countries while the United States has de-industrialized.
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