The international monetary fund recently injected some welcome transparency in the reporting of global currency reserves by naming 96 of the 146 countries that share such data with the Fund. Butthebiggernews is the trend: Currency reserves are falling after an unprecedented buildup over the past ten to 15 years. Since peaking at $11.98 trillion in the second quarter of 2014, they've dipped 4.3 percent, to $11.46 trillion at the end of June, according to the Fund's Composition of Official Foreign Exchange Reserves, or COFER, database. High commodity prices and strong global trade growth have enabled nations from Brazil to Russia to South Korea to amass huge reserves since the early 2000s, but "that long trend is more or less coming to an end," says Kit Juckes, head of foreign exchange strategy at Societe Generale in London.
展开▼
