Major Currencies of the World

When we talk about the world's major currencies, we often restrict ourselves to the United States Dollar and Euro. There is absolutely no doubt about the fact that these two currencies are used widely all over the world today, but that doesn't mean they are the only widely used currencies of the world. The right place to look out for such widely used currencies is the foreign exchange market. Abbreviated as forex or FX, it is an international over-the-counter financial institution which deals in currency trading.

Major Currencies

Simply put, these are the currencies that are traded extensively all over the world. The term currency exchange or foreign exchange involves buying and selling of various currencies. Pairs of these currencies are created in order to facilitate trading. A currency pair is a simple quotation which compares the currency of one nation with that of another. While the currency which is used as reference is known as 'quote currency', that which is used in relation is known as the 'base currency'. Given below is a list of the world's major currencies as of today along with their country of origin, currency code, and comparison with the US Dollar.

Currency	Currency Code*	Nation	In USD**
United States dollar	USD ($)	USA	1
Euro	EUR ()	Europe Union	0.75
Japanese yen	JPY ()	Japan	83.87
Pound sterling	GBP ()	United Kingdom	0.63
Australian dollar	AUD ($)	Australia	1.02
Swiss franc	CHF (Fr)	Switzerland	0.98
Canadian dollar	CAD ($)	Canada	1.01
Hong Kong dollar	HKD ($)	Hong Kong	7.76
Swedish kronor	SEK (kr)	Sweden	6.91
New Zealand dollar	NZD ($)	New Zealand	1.33

*The currency code - technically referred to as the ISO 4217 code, is basically a 3 letter ISO certification code allotted by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in order to define currencies that are in circulation the world over today. While the country code is used to denote the first two letters of this code, the third letter is an initial of the currency itself. In case of the US Dollar, the three letter code is USD wherein the first two letters 'US' depict the country code for the United States of America and D represents the 'dollar'.
**While referring to the comparison of the said currency with the US dollar, you need to take into consideration the fact that the value of these currencies keeps on fluctuating.

Some of the major currency pairs in market today are EUR/USD (Euro - US Dollar), USD/JPY (US Dollar - Japanese Yen), USD/CAD (US Dollar - Canadian Dollar), AUD/USD (Australian Dollar - US Dollar), etc. In economics, the term 'trade weighted index' refers to the economic tool which is used to compare the exchange rate of a particular currency against its trading partners (countries). The US Dollar Index (USDX) is one of the best examples of the major currencies index which is often used when comparing these currencies. A closer look at the list above, and you would notice that all the countries featuring in the list are economic superpowers which hold the key to world economy.