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A US company is due to make a payment of 1.5m Euros in 6 months. The spot exchange rate for EUR-USD is 1.0752, and the 6 month forward exchange rate is 1.0853². This exchange rate is expressed as the number of USD for 1 EUR.

What is the present value of the payment expressed in USD? Assume that the risk-free rate in USD is rᵤₛD = 5.0% for all maturities.

User Namphibian
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Final answer:

The present value of a 1.5 million Euro payment in USD, factoring in the spot and forward exchange rates as well as the risk-free rate, is calculated by first converting the future payment into USD at the forward rate, then discounting this amount to the present value at the given risk-free interest rate.

Step-by-step explanation:

The question is about calculating the present value of a future payment in a different currency, considering the spot exchange rate and the forward exchange rate.

Given the spot exchange rate of 1.0752 USD/EUR, a payment of 1.5 million Euros would be equivalent to 1,612,800 USD today. However, the payment is in the future, so we need to use the six-month forward exchange rate of 1.0853 USD/EUR. Consequently, the future payment would amount to 1,627,950 USD. To find the present value, we need to discount this future amount by using the given risk-free rate in USD (rᵐᵣD), which is 5.0%.

To discount the future payment, we can use the following formula for present value (PV):


PV = FV / (1 + r/n)^(nt)

Where:

  • FV is the future value of the payment in USD
  • r is the annual interest rate (risk-free rate in USD)
  • n is the number of times that interest is compounded per year
  • t is the time in years

In this case, assuming that the interest is compounded semi-annually (n = 2), the present value of the payment would be calculated as:


PV = 1,627,950 / (1 + 0.05/2)^(2*(1/2))

This equation will give the present value in USD that represents the current worth of a future payment of 1.5 million Euros using a 5.0% risk-free rate.

User Avinesh Kumar
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