The share of US dollar reserves held by central banks around the world hit a 25-year low during the fourth quarter of 2020, according to the International Monetary Fund.
US dollar assets in central bank reserves dropped to 59 per cent from 60.5 per cent in the third quarter of 2020, while the share of the euro has accounts for about 20 per cent. The share of other currencies, including the Australian dollar, Canadian dollar and Chinese renminbi, climbed to 9 per cent in the fourth quarter, IMF economists Serkan Arslanalp and Chima Simpson-Bell said in a blog post on Wednesday.
"This partly reflects the declining role of the US dollar in the global economy in the face of competition from other currencies used by central banks for international transactions," they said, citing the fund's Currency Composition of Official Foreign Exchange Reserves survey.
If the shifts in central bank reserves are large enough, they can affect currency and bond markets, they added.
Governments have pumped more than $16 trillion of fiscal stimulus into the global economy since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. The stimulus has been backed by about $9tn in monetary measures from central banks as they attempted to put a floor under a global economy that suffered its worst recession since the 1930s.
Central banks also use gold reserves as a store of value in times of volatility. Gold purchases by central banks slowed sharply by 59 per cent in 2020 to 273 tonnes, the World Gold Council said in its Gold Demand Trends report in January this year. However, official gold reserves grew by 44.8 tonnes during the final quarter of last year.
“Exchange rate fluctuations can have a major impact on the currency composition of central bank reserve portfolios. Changes in the relative values of different government securities can also have an impact, although this effect would tend to be smaller since major currency bond yields usually move together,” Mr Arslanalp and Mr Simpson-Bell said.
US dollar exchange rates can be influenced by several factors, including diverging economic paths between the US and other economies, differences in monetary and fiscal policies, as well as foreign exchange sales and purchases by central banks, they added.
The greenback's share of global reserves will continue to fall as emerging market and developing economy central banks seek further diversification of the currency composition of their reserves, according to the Washington-based lender. It cited the example of Russia, which has already announced its intention to diversify the composition of its currency reserves.
Despite major structural shifts in the international monetary system over the past six decades, the IMF said it expects the US dollar to “remain the dominant international reserve currency”.
The dollar’s standing as the global reserve currency was formally established in 1944 at the Bretton Woods Conference, when 44 nations agreed to create the IMF and the World Bank.
Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere
Director: Scott Cooper
Starring: Jeremy Allen White, Odessa Young, Jeremy Strong
Rating: 4/5
AWARDS
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Liverpool's all-time goalscorers
Ian Rush 339
Roger Hunt 280
Mohamed Salah 250
Gordon Hodgson 225
Billy Liddell 220
Silent Hill f
Publisher: Konami
Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC
Rating: 4.5/5
MATCH INFO
Group B
Bayern Munich v Tottenham, midnight (Thursday)
How much do leading UAE’s UK curriculum schools charge for Year 6?
- Nord Anglia International School (Dubai) – Dh85,032
- Kings School Al Barsha (Dubai) – Dh71,905
- Brighton College Abu Dhabi - Dh68,560
- Jumeirah English Speaking School (Dubai) – Dh59,728
- Gems Wellington International School – Dubai Branch – Dh58,488
- The British School Al Khubairat (Abu Dhabi) - Dh54,170
- Dubai English Speaking School – Dh51,269
*Annual tuition fees covering the 2024/2025 academic year
Empire of Enchantment: The Story of Indian Magic
John Zubrzycki, Hurst Publishers
Sheikh Zayed's poem
When it is unveiled at Abu Dhabi Art, the Standing Tall exhibition will appear as an interplay of poetry and art. The 100 scarves are 100 fragments surrounding five, figurative, female sculptures, and both sculptures and scarves are hand-embroidered by a group of refugee women artisans, who used the Palestinian cross-stitch embroidery art of tatreez. Fragments of Sheikh Zayed’s poem Your Love is Ruling My Heart, written in Arabic as a love poem to his nation, are embroidered onto both the sculptures and the scarves. Here is the English translation.
Your love is ruling over my heart
Your love is ruling over my heart, even a mountain can’t bear all of it
Woe for my heart of such a love, if it befell it and made it its home
You came on me like a gleaming sun, you are the cure for my soul of its sickness
Be lenient on me, oh tender one, and have mercy on who because of you is in ruins
You are like the Ajeed Al-reem [leader of the gazelle herd] for my country, the source of all of its knowledge
You waddle even when you stand still, with feet white like the blooming of the dates of the palm
Oh, who wishes to deprive me of sleep, the night has ended and I still have not seen you
You are the cure for my sickness and my support, you dried my throat up let me go and damp it
Help me, oh children of mine, for in his love my life will pass me by.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
John%20Wick%3A%20Chapter%204
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Chad%20Stahelski%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStars%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Keanu%20Reeves%2C%20Laurence%20Fishburne%2C%20George%20Georgiou%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E4%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Mina Cup winners
Under 12 – Minerva Academy
Under 14 – Unam Pumas
Under 16 – Fursan Hispania
Under 18 – Madenat
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 261hp at 5,500rpm
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Fuel consumption: 6.9L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh117,059
Pox that threatens the Middle East's native species
Camelpox
Caused by a virus related to the one that causes human smallpox, camelpox typically causes fever, swelling of lymph nodes and skin lesions in camels aged over three, but the animal usually recovers after a month or so. Younger animals may develop a more acute form that causes internal lesions and diarrhoea, and is often fatal, especially when secondary infections result. It is found across the Middle East as well as in parts of Asia, Africa, Russia and India.
Falconpox
Falconpox can cause a variety of types of lesions, which can affect, for example, the eyelids, feet and the areas above and below the beak. It is a problem among captive falcons and is one of many types of avian pox or avipox diseases that together affect dozens of bird species across the world. Among the other forms are pigeonpox, turkeypox, starlingpox and canarypox. Avipox viruses are spread by mosquitoes and direct bird-to-bird contact.
Houbarapox
Houbarapox is, like falconpox, one of the many forms of avipox diseases. It exists in various forms, with a type that causes skin lesions being least likely to result in death. Other forms cause more severe lesions, including internal lesions, and are more likely to kill the bird, often because secondary infections develop. This summer the CVRL reported an outbreak of pox in houbaras after rains in spring led to an increase in mosquito numbers.
