Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk
Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk
The Company operates manufacturing facilities and offices around the world and uses fixed and floating rate debt to finance the Company's global operations. As a result, the Company is subject to business risks inherent in non-U.S. activities, including political and economic uncertainty, import and export limitations and market risk related to changes in interest rates and foreign currency exchange rates. The Company believes that the political and economic risks related to the Company's international operations are mitigated due to the geographic diversity in which the Company's international operations are located.
Effective July 1, 2018, Argentina was designated as a highly inflationary economy as the projected three-year cumulative inflation rate exceeded 100%. As such, beginning July 1, 2018, the functional currency for the Company’s Argentina subsidiary became the U.S. dollar. Revenue from operations in Argentina represented less than 1% of total consolidated net sales for the years ended December 31, 2024, 2023 and 2022.
As of December 31, 2024, the Company had $0.1 million in foreign currency forward exchange assets and $0.1 million foreign currency forward exchange liabilities outstanding. The Company does not hold derivatives for trading purposes.
The Company's primary currency rate exposures are related to foreign denominated debt, intercompany debt, forward exchange contracts, foreign denominated receivables and payables and cash and short-term investments. A hypothetical 10% change in currency rates would have a favorable/unfavorable impact on fair values on such instruments of approximately $6.9 million. A hypothetical 10% change in currency rates would have a favorable/unfavorable impact on income before tax of $3.0 million.
The Company is exposed to market risk, including changes in interest rates. The Company is subject to interest rate risk on its variable rate revolving credit facilities and term notes, which consisted of long-term borrowings of $7.2 million at December 31, 2024. A 100 basis point increase in the interest rate would have resulted in an increase in interest expense of approximately $0.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2024.
Included in the Company’s accounting for the defined benefit pension plan (the "U.S. Plan") are assumptions on future discount rates and the expected return on Plan assets. The Company considers current market conditions, including changes in interest rates and Plan asset investment returns. Actuarial assumptions may differ materially from actual results due to changing market, demographic and economic conditions or higher or lower withdrawal rates. These differences may result in a significant impact to the amount of net pension expense or income recorded in the future.
A discount rate is used to determine the present value of future payments. In general, a pension liability increases as the discount rate decreases and decreases as the discount rate increases. The discount rate used to determine the future benefit obligation was 5.77% and 5.34% at December 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively. The discount rate is a significant factor in determining the amounts reported. A 50 basis point change in the discount rate of 5.77% used at December 31, 2024 would have a $1.7 million change on the Plan’s projected benefit obligation.
The Company developed the expected return on Plan assets by considering various factors which include targeted asset allocation percentages, historical returns, and expected future returns. The Company assumed an expected rate of return of 6.25% for the year ended December 31, 2024 and 7.00% for the year ended December 31, 2023. A 50 basis point change in the expected rate of return would have a $0.1 million effect on the Plan’s subsequent year’s net periodic pension cost.
26