Foreign exchange reserves
(Redirected from Foreign reserves)
Categories: Macroeconomics | Economic indicators | International economics
Foreign exchange reserves are the foreign currency deposits held by national banks of different nations. These are assets of Governments which are held in different reserve currencies such as Dollar, Euro and Yen. Reserves were formerly held only in gold. But under the Bretton Woods system, the United States pegged the Dollar to gold, and allowed convertibility of dollars to gold. This effectively made dollars appear as good as gold. The US government eventually abandoned the gold peg, making the dollar a reserve currency by fiat only.
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Levels
The countries with the largest foreign reserves are Japan ($844 billion, September 2005), China (Mainland) $769 billion, Republic of China (Taiwan) $254 billion, Hong Kong $123 billion, September 2005), the Republic of Korea ($207 billion, September 2005), Russia ($160 billion, September 2005), India ($143 billion, September 2005), Singapore($116 billion, August 2005), Germany ($100 billion, September 2005) and Malaysia ($80 billion, September 2005).
The adequacy of the foreign exchange reserves is more often expressed not as an absolute level, but as a percentage of short-term foreign debt, money supply, or average monthly imports.
See also
External links
Articles
- WSJ.com - Speculative Funds Going to China Worry Officials About Yuan's Peg
- China: behind the growing foreign exchange reserves - 2004-11-01
- United Nation Database for foreign reserve (A little tricky to use)
- Current Foreign Exchange of different countries with Detail
- Foreign Exchange Reserves in East Asia: Why the High Demand? (2003-11, 04/25/2003)
Data
- Foreign Exchange of different countries annually
- Press Release: Revised IMF Annual Report Data on Official Foreign ... - November 19, 2003