he real value of the U.S. dollar has reached an all-time high since President Donald Trump took office.

According to the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and the Bank of Korea on the 6th, the U.S. real effective exchange rate (REER) index rose to 115.1 (base year 2020 = 100) as of the end of January this year, up 1.7 points from the previous month. This marks the highest level in BIS-provided statistics since 1994. The previous peak was 113.4 at the end of December last year, with the record before that being 113.0 at the end of October 2022.

The real effective exchange rate measures the real purchasing power of a country’s currency relative to the currencies of its trading partners.

It evaluates the relative exchange rate level between a base period and the present, with a value above 100 indicating overvaluation compared to the base year and a value below 100 suggesting undervaluation. Consequently, this indicates that the real value of the dollar has risen significantly. Since the presidential election in November last year, it has far surpassed its previous high of 113.