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.