Wenn eine Währung gegenüber einer oder mehreren anderen Währungen auf dem Foreign exchange market an Wert verliert, fällt der Wechselkurs. Die Währung wertet ab.
Example: If the rate of the euro against the US dollar falls from 1.30 to 1.20, you get 10 US cents less than before for each euro. In the event of a devaluation, exports will become cheaper because the domestic costs will remain the same, but the exporters will receive more domestic currencies than before for the same amount of foreign currency that they received for their goods.
So your profits increase. However, over time, competition for market share forces them to pass some of this advantage on to their overseas customers in the form of price cuts. In this way, exporters can expand their market shares vis-à-vis competitors in other countries whose currencies have not depreciated. So exports will increase. This can also allow growth and employment to gain momentum.
Devaluation is therefore conducive to growth. The downside, however, is that imports are becoming more expensive. Because the importers now have to use more domestic currency than before for the same amount of foreign goods. As a result, their profits decrease. However, they will only accept this loss of profit for a short time and increase their prices sooner or later. This increases the inflation rate. At the same time, the importers are losing market share due to higher import prices.
Eine Abwertung dämpft also die Importe. Im Ergebnis jedoch führt eine Abwertung mit gestärkten Exporten und gedämpften Importen zu einer positiveren trade balance. Diese wirkt sich positiv auf Wachstum und Beschäftigung aus. Die Gefahr ist allerdings: Weil auch die Inflation höher ist, könnte die Geldpolitik gezwungen sein, die Zinsen anzuheben, um das Wachstum zu dämpfen und dadurch Preisstabilität zu gewährleisten. In diesem Fall gingen gen die positiven Wachstumseffekte wieder verloren.
English 
German 