Export business prefer rising or declining dollar

Question

Would export businesses choose a rising or declining dollar? Would it be similar for a European tourist on a budget and visiting the Grand Canyon? Explain your answer.

Answer 1

Export businesses would prefer a declining dollar. Yes, it would be the same for a European tourist on a budget and visiting the Grand Canyon. As the dollar declines, more dollars are necessary to buy a specific amount of foreign currency and less foreign currency to exchange for more dollars. Thus in the case of US exports, a declining dollar facilitates the improvement of sales in foreign countries, because the US goods will be available cheaper. In short, US export goods become comparatively less expensive as compared to domestic goods. More foreign consumers will hence prefer buying US goods. Hence US companies will naturally export more goods to make profits out of the available opportunity. Thus export businesses would prefer a declining dollar.

In a similar manner, when dollar declines, travel to US becomes less expensive for foreigners, since they can exchange their currency for more US dollars. When a European tourist visits the Grand Canyon, he/she can exchange less Euros for more dollars, which could be spent as his/her tourism expenses. So tourists on budget can easily afford to visit US in a period of declining dollar. Thus export business and foreign tourists would prefer a declining dollar (Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, 1997).