The Currency Composition of Foreign Exchange Reserves: Retrospect and Prospect

Barry Eichengreen and Donald Mathieson

No 2000/131, IMF Working Papers from International Monetary Fund

Abstract: This paper examines the determinants of the currency composition of international reserves. Our single most important finding is the striking stability over time of the relationship between the demand for reserves denominated in different currencies and its principal determinants: trade flows, financial flows and currency pegs. This result contrasts sharply with recent predictions of sharp shifts in the currency composition of central banks’ holdings of foreign exchange. The message would seem to be that in this, as in other respects, the international monetary system is in a mode of gradual, continuous evolution, not of rapid, discontinuous change.

Keywords: WP; currency; break; currency composition; reserve; International reserves; composition of reserve; currency peg; currency share; composition change; EMU currency holding; unspecified currency; dollar peg; Currencies; Reserve currencies; International monetary system; International capital markets; Global (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 34
Date: 2000-07-01
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (85)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/cat/longres.aspx?sk=3693 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: The Currency composition of Foreign Exchange Reserves: Retrospect and Prospect (2000)
Working Paper: The Currency Composition of Foreign Exchange Reserves Retrospect and Prospect
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:imf:imfwpa:2000/131

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/pubs/ord_info.htm

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IMF Working Papers from International Monetary Fund International Monetary Fund, Washington, DC USA. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Akshay Modi ().