Euractiv reports that 30 percent of the agricultural exporters in Albania have gone bankrupt. The cause? The rapid appreciation of the national currency, the lev versus the euro zone where much of the production is sold. U.S. agricultural exporters understand the pain. The U.S. dollar appreciated 23 percent between 2021 and 2022. Although this year it has zigzagged across both sides of unchanged, it remains well above lows hit back in 2020. Exchange rates are far more impactful to bulk commodity products than it is to value added goods. Now things could get worse. Analysts say the dollar has strengthened an average of 1.2 percent during September in each of the past six years. The reasoning involves quarter-end buying, but also a view that...

TAGS – North America, Macroeconomics