Dollar Share of World FX Reserves (thru Q2)

From the IMF (9/27/2024):

Figure 1: USD share of total reserves as reported (light blue), and USD share plus 60% of unallocated share (bold blue). Source: IMF, COFER, and author’s calculations.

While this reduction might seems precipitous, it’s interesting to note the faster shift was during the Trump administration. In any case, some context is useful.

Figure 2: Share of foreign exchange reserves held by central banks, in USD (blue), EUR (orange), DEM  (tan squares), JPY (green), GBP (sky blue), Swiss francs (purple), CNY (red). For 1999 data onward, estimates based on COFER data, and apportionment of unallocated reserves, described in text.  Source: Chinn and Frankel (2007), IMF COFER accessed 10/1/2024, and author’s estimates. 

The decrease from 2022Q3 can be accounted for by the decrease in the value of the US dollar (remember the shares are calculated using currency values evaluated using market exchange rates). So, a bit premature to worry about the end of the dollar’s reserve currency hegemony.

For more on fx reserve holdings, from a central bank by central bank perspective, see Chinn et al. (2024), discussed here.

 

5 thoughts on “Dollar Share of World FX Reserves (thru Q2)

  1. pgl

    ADP: Private Sector Jobs Bounce Back in September, Beating Forecasts
    https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/adp-private-sector-jobs-bounce-back-in-september-beating-forecasts/ar-AA1rAvDb?ocid=BingNewsSerp

    Private employers added a better-than-expected 143,000 jobs in September in a bounceback from sluggish summer hiring, payroll firm ADP said on Wednesday. The gains were broad-based with only the information technology showing a slight decrease. Increases occurred both at mid-sized and large employers. The leisure and hospitality sector led the way with a gain of 34,000 jobs, followed by construction with a 34,000 increase. Analysts had expected the September report would show an improvement from the upwardly revised 103,000 jobs added in August but had forecast an increase of about 120,000 jobs.

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  2. Macroduck

    Off topic – who won the Veep debate? Depends on who you ask:

    https://nomoremister.blogspot.com/2024/10/no-jd-vance-did-not-win-last-nights.html?m=1

    Yeah, sure, Democrats think Walz won, Republicans think Vance did. Who’d have guessed? More interesting is that media professionals mostly told us that Vance won the debate, while regular voters thought it was a toss-up. Undecided voters, who are the big fish at this point?:

    “Perhaps more importantly, Walz won over independents, with 58 percent of them saying that he was the winner as opposed to 42 percent for Vance—but these people were also more likely to say they didn’t even watch the debate.”

    The press has spent decades normalizing the dishonesty of the right, over a decade normalizing the criminality of Trump, and in the process have made themselves suckers for guys like Vance.

    We expect teachers to be good at teaching. Painters to be good at painting. What is it, exactly, that media professionals are supposed to be good at?

    Reply
  3. Moses Herzog

    Lots of gems in these Setser blog posts: “As I have noted in the past, China’s data doesn’t agree with itself. One measure of the goods deficit is a lot bigger than another measure of the goods surplus.” is but one small example. Gee, Beijing officials “telling on themselves” with lies a five year old might try. Beijing never did that before…… the child with cookie crumbs all over his face and shirt saying “But Mom, I didn’t eat any cookies”. So consumed with gazing at their own navels, Beijing has zero perception of how see-through the lies are.

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