Euro in Madrid. The euro was introduced to world financial markets as an accounting currency on 1 January 1999, replacing the former European Currency Unit (ECU) at a ratio of 1:1 (US$1.1743). Physical euro coins and banknotes entered into circulation on 1 January 2002, making it the day-to-day operating currency of its original members, and by March 2002 it had completely replaced the former currencies. While the euro dropped subsequently to US$0.83 within two years (26 October 2000), it has traded above the U.S. dollar since the end of 2002, peaking at US$1.60 on 18 July 2008. In late 2009, the
Yuan (currency) code for renminbi is CNY, an abbreviation of "Chinese yuan". (A similar case is the use of the terms "sterling" to designate British currency and "pound" for the unit of account.) The symbol for the yuan (元) is also used in Chinese to refer to the currency units of Japan "(yen)" and Korea "(won)", and is used to translate the currency unit "dollar" as well as some other currencies; for example, the United States dollar is called "Meiyuan" () in Chinese, and the euro is called "Ouyuan" (). When used in English in the context of the modern foreign exchange