IMF Working Papers

Currencies of External Balance Sheets

Author/Editor:

Cian Allen ; Deepali Gautam ; Luciana Juvenal

Publication Date:

November 17, 2023

Electronic Access:

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Link to data for this title

Summary:

This paper assembles a comprehensive dataset of the currency composition of countries’ external balance sheets for 50 economies over the period 1990–2020. We document the following findings: (i) the US dollar and the euro still dominate global external balance sheets; (ii) there were striking changes in the currency composition across countries since the 1990s, with many emerging markets having moved from short to long positions in foreign currency, thus moving away from the so-called “original sin”; (iii) financial and tradeweighted exchange rates are weakly correlated, suggesting the commonly used trade indices do not adequately reflect the wealth effects of currency movements, and (iv) the large wealth transfers across countries during COVID-19 and the global financial crises increased global imbalances in the former, and reduced them in the latter.

Series:

Working Paper No. 2023/237

Subject:

Currencies Exchange rates Financial crises Financial statements Foreign currency exposure Foreign exchange Global financial crisis of 2008-2009 Money Public financial management (PFM)

Frequency:

regular