After Twenty-Seven Years and an 85% Swing, the Euro Is Worth What It Was at Launch
Silver Data Lab Research Desk · Statistical analysis · Published on 04 August 2026
- Data source
- European Central Bank
- Reference period
- August 2026
- Last updated
- 01 September 2026
Key estimates
- The euro was worth 1.1608 dollars in January 1999 and 1.1593 in August 2026 — 0.1% lower after twenty-seven years.
- Between those two points it fell to 0.8532 in June 2001 and rose to 1.5770 in July 2008.
- That is an 85% range between the weakest and strongest months of the currency's life.
- The euro has traded below parity with the dollar in 35 of its 332 months, in two episodes: 33 months from February 2000, and two months in autumn 2022.
- The average across the whole series is 1.1818 dollars, close to both the launch rate and the current one.
A round trip
The euro entered circulation as a unit of account in January 1999 at 1.1608 dollars. In August 2026 it stood at 1.1593.
The difference between those two figures is 0.1%, smaller than the currency's move from one month to the next in all but eighteen months of its life. Someone who converted euros to dollars at launch and back today would have very nearly the amount they started with.
What happened in between was not small.
Down 27%, then up 85%
The euro lost value almost immediately. By June 2001 it had fallen to 0.8532 dollars, 27% below its launch rate, and it spent 33 consecutive months below parity between February 2000 and October 2002 — a currency worth less than the dollar it had been created to rival.
Then it rose. The peak came in July 2008 at 1.5770, 85% above the 2001 trough, in the months before the financial crisis.
From there it has trended down over eighteen years, touching parity again briefly in September and October 2022 — two months, the only time it has fallen below one dollar since 2002.
The long-run average
Across all 332 months the average is 1.1818 dollars.
Both the launch rate and the current rate sit within a few cents of that average. The euro has spent its life oscillating widely around a level it keeps returning to, rather than trending in either direction.
What an exchange rate is not
A bilateral rate is a price between two currencies, and it moves when either one moves. A fall in the euro against the dollar can reflect conditions in the euro area, conditions in the United States, or both, and this series cannot separate them.
Nor is a stronger currency straightforwardly better. A high euro makes imports cheaper for European buyers and European exports more expensive abroad; a low one does the reverse. The figures below describe the price, not its consequences.
The rate against the dollar also says nothing about the euro's value against the currencies of the euro area's other trading partners, or about what a euro buys inside the euro area, which is a question about prices rather than exchange rates.
US dollars per euro, 1999 to 2026
December of each year, with the January 1999 launch, the June 2001 trough, the July 2008 peak and the latest month.
- Launch 1.16 · 1999-01-01
- Trough 0.85 · 2001-06-01
- Peak 1.58 · 2008-07-01
- Latest 1.16 · 2026-08-01
What these figures cannot tell you
- Monthly averages, not daily rates
- Each value is the average of the daily reference rates published in that month. Intra-month highs and lows, including any single day on which the euro traded lower or higher than the figures quoted here, are not shown.
- One bilateral pair
- This is the euro against the US dollar only. It is not a measure of the euro's overall external value, for which an effective exchange rate weighted across trading partners would be needed.
- Pre-1999 values do not exist
- The series begins in January 1999, when the euro came into existence as a unit of account. There is no earlier history to compare against.
- Chart points are year-end plus turning points
- The figure plots the December value of each year together with the launch month, the June 2001 trough, the July 2008 peak and the latest month. Intermediate months are not drawn.
- A price, not an explanation
- The series records the rate. It does not attribute movements to monetary policy, growth differentials, trade balances or capital flows, and no such attribution is made here.
Frequently asked questions
- How much is the euro worth in dollars?
- 1.1593 dollars in August 2026, the monthly average of the ECB's daily reference rates. That is 0.1% below the 1.1608 at which the euro launched in January 1999.
- Has the euro ever been worth less than a dollar?
- Yes, in 35 of its 332 months. It traded below parity for 33 consecutive months from February 2000 to October 2002, reaching 0.8532 in June 2001, and again for two months in September and October 2022.
- When was the euro strongest against the dollar?
- July 2008, at 1.5770 dollars, 85% above its June 2001 low and in the months before the financial crisis.
- Is the euro getting weaker over time?
- Not on this measure. The average across the whole series is 1.1818 dollars, and both the launch rate and the current rate sit within a few cents of it. The currency has oscillated widely around that level rather than trending in either direction.
Methodological note
The ECB publishes euro foreign exchange reference rates through the ECB Data Portal. This study uses the monthly average US dollar rate per euro, as published, from January 1999 to August 2026.
The launch and current values, the trough and peak, the count of months below parity and the episodes they fall into, the 85% range and the series average are derived by Silver Data Lab from the published series by inspecting all 332 observations. The rates themselves are published figures.
The chart plots each December value together with January 1999, June 2001, July 2008 and August 2026, so the turning points named in the text appear in the figure.
Source data
The underlying series can be inspected and re-downloaded from the ECB Data Portal. The filters below are the ones applied.
US dollar/Euro exchange rate, monthly average
EXR/M.USD.EUR.SP00.A
- Filters applied:
- freq=M · currency=USD · currency_denom=EUR · exr_type=SP00 (spot) · exr_suffix=A (average)
- Extracted:
- 2026-09-01
- Source last updated:
- 2026-08-01
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