Euro: returns since 1999

The euro is the world's second most-traded currency, and our series tracks the value of one euro in U.S. dollars since its launch in 1999. It opened near $1.14, sank below parity to about $0.85 in 2000–2001, and later climbed above $1.50 before settling into a wide range — the full swing of the only major currency born in living memory.

One honesty note: this is the exchange rate against the U.S. dollar (FRED H.10), not a return. Holding cash earns no interest, so the line above is currency movement and not a yield, and the comparison against U.S. inflation (CPI) shows what a dollar holder actually kept in real terms.

The euro arrived only as physical notes and coins on January 1, 2002, three years after it began life as an accounting unit in 1999. Its single biggest test came in 2010 to 2012, when the Greek, Irish and Portuguese debt crises raised real doubt about whether the bloc would hold together, until the European Central Bank's pledge in July 2012 to do "whatever it takes" steadied it. Reading the table below alongside those dates shows how much of the move was crisis and policy rather than ordinary drift.

Descriptive, educational content computed from official public data. Not investment advice. Past performance does not guarantee future results.