By the end of the early 1980s, the weight of the US dollar was crumbling the economies of the third-world nations under debt and closing most European factories because they could not compete with other foreign competitors.
Consequently, in 1985 the G-5, the most powerful economies in the world comprising the US, Great Britain, France, West Germany, and Japan, came together and sent representatives to what was known as a secret meeting at the Plaza Hotel in New York City. News of the meeting leaked, forcing the G-5 to make a statement encouraging the appreciation of non-dollar currencies, including the Euro, yen and pounds. This was therefore known as the 'Plaza Accord'.