One of the economic factors which should influence the exchange rate of the currency of a country is the position of its gross domestic product as compared with GDP of another country. Models favouring flexible prices and those opting for strict price control anticipate that this kind of relationship entails real depreciation of currency at times when the GDP of a country is relatively high.

This study aimed at verifying the above conclusion, using statistical data for the economies of Australia, Japan, France, Canada, the United States of America, Great Britain and Italy. In each case, the phenomenon was analysed on the basis of the estimated real exchange rate of an individual currency against the American dollar. The second variable in this study was the value showing the relation of GDP per capita in fixed prices to a parallel aggregate for the USA.

The results show that it is hard to establish simple and direct correlations, yet the intensity and duration of relative changes in the value of GDP significantly strengthen the relations between the values analysed. It is worth mentioning that the time criterion proves to be of greater importance in this instance. Therefore, it may be concluded that when the increase in economic activity reaches a level well above its long-term average and lasts for several consecutive quarters, the real depreciation of the currency of the country becomes perceptible. Hence, an empirically verifiable relationship between the valuation of a currency and the shaping of the cyclical trends can be observed.