Functional Currency

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IAS 21 outlines how to account for the transactions and operations in foreign currency in the financial statements of an entity. It also prescribes how to translate foreign currency financial statements into a presentation currency. An entity is required to determine a functional currency based on its primary economic environment which it operates and foreign currency transactions are recorded using the spot conversion rate on the date of transaction.

The principal issues of IAS 21 are which exchange rates should be used and how to the effects of changes to be recorded in the financial statements.
Key Definitions

Functional Currency is the currency of the primary economic environment in which the entity operates and Presentation Currency …show more content…

Assuming there are no other transactions between them, there would be no exchange differences to report in the consolidated financial statement.

However, in another example, if Entity A’s functional currency is SGD and Entity B’s is GBP. On 30 Apr 2009, A bought equipment from B at GBP 10 million when the exchange rate is 1 GBP = 2 SGD, hence the unpaid liability will be recorded as SGD 20 million.

At A’s financial year ended 31 Dec 2009, the closing exchange rate was 1 GBP = 1.6 SGD, hence the unpaid liability will be recorded as SGD 16 million. Therefore, there will be an exchange gain of SGD 4 million.

IAS 21 will require the entity to disclose the differences recognized in consolidated income statement and state the differences of the FX rates at the beginning and end of a period. The rate in which is often used approximates around the actual rate at the date of the transaction – usually an average weekly rate or a monthly rate might be used for all transactions in each foreign currency occurring during that period. However, if exchange rates fluctuate significantly, the usage of the average rate for a period would become

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