There’s not much data on individual central bank holdings of the dollar through 2023, but COFER goes through 2024Q4, and gold holdings through 2025Q1.

While there’s been some gain in EUR and other currencies in recent years, the biggest gainer in total reserves (fx reserves and gold) is … gold.

Figure 1: USD shares of fx and gold reserves (blue bar), EUR (tan), all other (gray), and gold (yellow). USD(EUR) share assumes 60%(35%) of unallocated reserves are in USD(EUR). Source: IMF COFER, World Gold Council, and author’s calculations. 

The question is what happens to USD reserves in Q1, with bellicosity of US international economic policy and associated policy uncertainty.

OMFIF’s Global Public Investor 2025 notes the rise in geopolitical concerns:

Source: OMFIF.

Of geopolitical concerns, tariffs and the trade war at the forefront:

Source: OMFIF.

It’s also of interest to consider the central bank motivations for holding

Keep reading this article on Econbrowser Blog - James Hamilton & Menzie Chinn.

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