Currency appreciation and depreciation

Currency depreciation is the loss of value of a country's currency with respect to one or more foreign reference currencies, typically in a floating exchange rate system in which no official currency value is maintained. Currency appreciation in the same context is an increase in the value of the currency. Short-term changes in the value of a currency are reflected in changes in the exchange rate.

There is no optimal value for a currency. High and low values have tradeoffs, along with distributional consequences for different groups.