This study examines the determinants of the currency composition of foreign exchange reserves for both industrial and developing countries. During the period from 1976-85, our empirical results indicate that the currency composition of reserves has been influenced by each country’s exchange...

This paper analyzes reserve adequacy in emerging market countries. It argues that the old rule of thumb of maintaining reserves equivalent to three months of imports has become obsolete and that, instead, a new benchmark is needed which takes into account the increased importance of capital...

The paper finds that simple econometric specifications yield surprising rich and complex dynamics -- relative prices respond to the nominal exchange rate and pass-through effects, import and export volumes respond to relative price changes, and the trade balance responds to changes in import and...

OTC derivatives markets were an increasing source of vulnerability heading into the crisis. OTC derivatives markets contributed to the financial crisis. Credit derivatives facilitated the development and growth of the structured securities markets; and the purchasing, packaging, and distribution...

This guide explains to participants in the Special Drawing Rights Department and prescribed holders of SDRs the transactions and operations permitted under the IMF's Articles of Agreement and applicable decisions of the Executive Board

This accompanying document to the Guidelines for Foreign Exchange Reserve Management, which the IMF published in 2004, presents case studies prepared by reserve management entities in 20 countries. These sample case studies illustrate how a range of countries from around the world, at different...

After narrowing modestly in 2013, the global scale of current account imbalances, and of excess imbalances, held steady in 2014. Over the last several years, while the country composition of imbalances has rotated somewhat, overall there has been little progress on reducing excess imbalances....

This paper proposes an extension of the current SDR valuation basket for a period of nine months to September 30, 2016. This extension would respond to feedback from SDR users on the desirability of avoiding changes in the basket at the end of the calendar year and facilitate the continued...

After narrowing in the aftermath of the global financial crisis and remaining broadly unchanged in recent years, global imbalances increased moderately in 2015, amid a reconfiguration of current accounts and exchange rates. Shifts in 2015 were driven primarily by the uneven strength of the...