United States dollar

Islamic State (IS) has reportedly started minting its own Islamic Dinar gold coins bearing inscriptions of the Islamist militant group with one gold dinar having a value of USD 139.

An-anti IS activist, who lives in the IS-controlled city of Raqqa in Syria posted photographs of the coins on his Twitter account, saying these were to come into circulation soon, the Telegraph reports.

US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew has said a woman will be featured on a redesigned USD 10 bill.

Lew will make a decision about the selected honoree by the end of year, according to reports of the CNN.

The redesigned USD 10 bill is to be released in 2020, the 100th anniversary of the Constitution's 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote.

The balance of the non-government credit extended by lending institutions increased by 7.5 per cent (6.6 per cent in real terms) on March 31, 2015 compared to March 31, 2014 due to the 17.4 per cent rise (16.5 per cent in real terms) in the credit extended to the population's households, whilst the forex component denominated in lei decreased by 10.8 per cent, according to the data released on

What happens when the political will suppresses public institutions? We have had an experience of this in Turkey in the past week.

I am indeed talking about the interest rate and the flight of foreign currency. Let us leave the technical side of the issue to the economists and instead simply look at the institutional side.

By Lukanyo Mnyanda

The euro declined against the dollar, approaching a nine-year low, on speculation reports this week will strengthen the argument for sovereign-bond purchases from the European Central Bank.

The U.S. dollar, which rapidly strengthened in 2014, shook the world's several local currencies, strong or weak, last year. Many local currencies lost value against the dollar. The euro, especially in the second half of 2014, was seriously shaken, but nevertheless, its annual average value in 2014 was the same as its average annual value in 2013.

By Stathis Kousounis

Fluctuating foreign currency rates may affect the number of tourism arrivals in Greece this season to a greater extent than in the last few years, according to the president of the Hellenic Hotel Federation, Yiannis Retsos.

The euro hit a nine-year low against the dollar on Thursday as bearish German manufacturing data suggested the European Central Bank may soon move to expand its bond-buying programme to bolster economic recovery.

By Netty Ismail & Hiroko Komiya

The euro traded 0.2 percent from a two-year low as Greece’s prime minister attempts to get his presidential candidate confirmed and avoid an early parliamentary election that risks severing the nation’s international lifeline.

The year 2014 has been one in which the Turkish Lira plummeted under heavy pressure from the U.S. dollar. The lira last saw such pressure in 2009, the year when the global crisis took hold of Turkey. After overcoming that crisis, it again experienced the stress created by the climbing dollar in 2014. The lira is entering the new year with a lot of accumulated stress.