Countries without reserve currency status fear that their fates are tied to macroeconomic and political decisions that are outside of their control. The push for a world market dominated less by the dollar is nothing new, but just as investors seek to hold a basket of investments rather than a solitary stock, so do central banks when it comes to managing their reserves. The euro is the second most used reserve currency, accounting for roughly 20 percent of global foreign exchange reserves. The European Union rivals the United States in economic size, exports more, and boasts a strong central bank and robust financial markets—factors that make its currency a viable challenger to the dollar. But the lack of a common treasury and a unified European bond market limits its attractiveness as a reserve currency, according to Setser. A reserve currency is a foreign currency that is held in significant quantities by central banks or other monetary authorities as part of their foreign exchange reserves.
- For example, in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, unprecedented U.S. sanctions cut Russia off from the dollar, freezing $300 billion in Russian central bank assets and triggering a default on the country’s sovereign debt.
- The euro is the second most used reserve currency, accounting for roughly 20 percent of global foreign exchange reserves.
- But it was the American that won the day and put the U.S. dollar right in the middle of world trade.
- By the 1960s, however, the United States did not have enough gold to cover the dollars in circulation outside the United States, leading to fears of a run that could wipe out U.S. gold reserves.
Countries also keep an eye on major reserve currencies to ensure that their holdings aren’t adversely affected. For instance, strong inflation in the U.S. could cause a devaluation of the U.S. dollar. In the end, this limits the monetary policy benefits that are achievable using these reserves. It creates only a marginal benefit for a country’s currency if it is considered a reserve currency around the world.
Types of Reserve Currency
Britain abandoned the gold standard in 1931, which decimated the bank accounts of international merchants who traded in pounds. Foreign transactions often involve reserve currencies rather than the currencies of the two countries involved. For instance, in 2008, trade with the U.S. accounted https://www.wallstreetacademy.net/ for only 20% of international transactions in Asian countries, even though the bulk of these were conducted in U.S. dollars. These transactions used the U.S. dollar as a reserve currency, which was accepted internationally, rather than the local currencies of the countries involved.
Countries had some degree of control over currencies in situations where the values of their currencies became too weak or too strong relative to the dollar. For nearly a century, the United States dollar has served as the world’s premier reserve currency, taking the crown once worn by the pound sterling. The future of the dollar as the most popular reserve currency is less certain. When a country acquires reserves, it doesn’t place the currency in general circulation. The reserves are acquired through trade, with the acquiring country selling goods in exchange for currency.
What Is Reserve Currency?
Countries don’t fill out an application to have their currencies become reserve currencies, and there is no international organization that confers this status. To get a seat at the grownups’ table, it helps to be a developed country with a big economy with relatively free capital flows, to have a banking system able to handle being a creditor, and to have export clout. These requirements make reserve currency status a rich world club, much to the chagrin of many developing countries. As of July 2023, China has by far the most reported foreign currency reserves of any country, with more than $3 trillion.
So representatives from 44 nations gathered in the small town of Bretton Woods, New Hampshire to come up with the solution. For Foreign Affairs, Peking University’s Michael Pettis looks at the high price of dollar dominance.
Low borrowing costs stemming from issuing a reserve currency may prompt loose spending by both the public and private sectors, which may result in asset bubbles and ballooning government debt. Stimulus spending in the U.S., for example, led Chinese leaders to fear a weak dollar since that would erode the country’s value of dollar-denominated debt. Meanwhile, the dollar’s outsize role in international trade could have negative consequences for the global economy. As a country’s currency weakens, its goods exports should become cheaper and thus more competitive.
Definition and Example of Reserve Currency
These experts contend that losses for exporters are countered by gains for importers, and that overall, the situation is a net benefit to the U.S. economy. Tech evangelists dream of a world where cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin replace government-backed currencies. Such digital currencies are “mined” and transferred via a decentralized network of computers without any issuing authority. Proponents—including El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, who has made Bitcoin legal tender—argue that such a system would free countries from the whims of other nations’ monetary policies. But critics say adopting cryptocurrency as legal tender constrains a government’s policy options during a crisis, and that the volatility of cryptocurrency reduces its viability as a means of exchange.
Canadian dollar
A reserve currency is a currency held in large quantities by governments and institutions. These currencies are used as a means of international payment and to support the value of national currencies. This blog post by CFR’s Brad W. Setser explains how China and other countries hide their foreign exchange reserves. These reserves are rounded up to the nearest billion; they include gold, U.S. dollars, and other reserve currencies. This Congressional Research Service report [PDF] examines the debate over exchange rates and currency manipulation. The SDR are reserve assets which give the recipient country the right to claim a corresponding value of member states reserve currencies when required.
The dollar at the center of the world (Classic)
Cries for a global currency grow louder when the dollar is comparatively weak, since a weak dollar makes U.S. exports cheaper and can erode trade surpluses in other export-dominated economies. Critics of a dollar-dominated currency market have pointed out that it may be increasingly difficult for the U.S. to keep up with world dollar demand as its weight in the global economy shrinks. Rather than use the dollar, central banks have looked towards using a basket of currencies, called special drawing rights. This protocol would effectively reduce the influence of any one country and ostensibly would force more prudent economic policies. Since the end of World War II, the dollar has been the world’s most important means of exchange.
In 2022, global central banks held over half of their reserves in U.S. dollars. The demand for Treasury securities and the deficit spending to finance the Vietnam War and the Great Society domestic programs caused the United States to flood the market with paper money. With growing concerns over stability, the countries converted dollar reserves into gold.The demand for gold was such that President Richard Nixon was forced to intervene and de-link the dollar from gold, which led to floating exchange rates. China has positioned its currency as next in line to the U.S. dollar; it has been the largest contributor to world growth since 2008’s global financial crisis. China’s renminbi was named by the IMF as a global reserve currency in 2015.
But because so much trade is conducted in U.S. dollars, other countries do not always see this benefit when their currencies depreciate. “Both the United States and the world at large would benefit from a less dominant U.S. dollar,” writes Michael Pettis, a professor of finance at Peking University. China has been trying to boost the global role of the renminbi, also known as the yuan, since the late 2000s. It currently accounts for 3 percent of global reserves, but China has increasingly pushed to use the renminbi in bilateral trade, especially in the wake of the Ukraine war.
“Sanctions are an effective tool, but we have to be careful,” CFR’s Benn Steil told NPR. Meanwhile, the Chinese renminbi has become the most-traded currency in Russia. Some experts say this benefit is modest, pointing to the fact that other developed countries are able to borrow at similarly low rates. Former Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke has argued that the United States’ declining share of the global economy and the rise of other currencies such as the euro and yen have eroded the U.S. advantage. “The exorbitant privilege is not so exorbitant any more,” Bernanke wrote in 2016. Even with de-dollarization, the U.S. dollar remains the world’s currency reserve.