Most key apparel industry currencies remained stable in May, with a couple of notable exceptions.
The euro fell by by 1.75% against the U.S. dollar in the month, to $1.36, pushing it down a little over 1.2% on a year-to-date basis, though up 4.6% compared to this time last year.
Although strengthening a bit since the election in the country, the Indian rupee fell another 2 percent, bringing its year-to-date decline to 4.9%.
The Indonesian rupiah finished the month up negligibly from April, but is down by 4 percent for the first five months of the year. Its rate is more than 18 percent higher than May 2013, however.
Although flat in May compared to April, the Pakistani rupee has had a volatile ride in 2013, down almost 8 percent for the first five months of this year.
Among the more stable currencies, the Chinese yuan continued to climb against the dollar, finishing the month up almost 0.2% compared to April and almost 0.8% higher for the year so far.
Movements in the Bangladeshi taka and Vietnamese dong tend to be very small since both are pegged, though somewhat loosely in the case of the dong, against the dollar.
