Currencies can also be weakened by domestic and international interventions. For example, China’s devaluation of the yuan in 2015 followed a long period of strengthening. Moreover, the imposition of sanctions can have an immediate effect on a country’s currency. As recently as 2018, sanctions weakened the Russian ruble, but the real hit was in 2014 when oil prices collapsed and the annexation of Crimea set other nations on edge when dealing with Russia in business and politics.1
Perhaps the most interesting recent example is the fate of the British Pound as Brexit neared. The British pound (GBP) was a stable currency, but the vote to leave the European Union set the pound on a very volatile path that has seen it weaken in general as the process of leaving plodded along.2