ten years), we can find much larger changes in the yen, from around 250 to the dollar at one extreme, to 80 to the dollar at the other extreme. Even the exchange rate between the two “safe havens” - the US dollar and the German mark - experienced changes (both up and down) of 1 around 50 per cent in the mid 1980s.
Table 1: East Asian Exchange Rates per cent change during 1997 vs US dollar trade-weighted* Indonesia Malaysia Philippines South Korea Thailand  -56 -35 -33 -47 -45  -44 -24 -26 -43 -38  * RBA calculation Why do these big changes in exchange rates occur? This is a central question, to which there is no clear answer yet.