International Reserves And Foreign Currency Liquidity

This update of the guidelines published in 2001 sets forth the underlying framework for the Reserves Data Template and provides operational advice for its use. The updated version also includes three new appendices aimed at assisting member countries in reporting the required data.

International financial crises in the late 1990s revealed that deficiencies in countrieѕђة́ international reserves and related information made it difficult to anticipate and respond to crises by obscuring financial weaknesses and imbalances. This volume sets forth an innovative framework to assess countrieѕђة́ international reserves and foreign currency liquidity. The framework takes account of official balance sheet and off-balance-sheet financial activities, future and potential demand for foreign exchange to meet official obligations, the availability of official foreign currency assets to meet such demand, and official risk exposure to exchange rate fluctuations. This work clarifies what international reserves are, and how international reserves and related information should be strengthened to promote informed decision making in the public and private sectors, thereby helping improve the functioning of global financial markets.

International financial crises in the late 1990s revealed that deficiencies in countries’ international reserves and related information made it difficult to anticipate and respond to crises by obscuring financial weaknesses and imbalances. This volume sets forth an innovative framework to assess countries’ international reserves and foreign currency liquidity. The framework takes account of official balance sheet and off-balance-sheet financial activities, future and potential demand for foreign exchange to meet official obligations, the availability of official foreign currency assets to meet such demand, and official risk exposure to exchange rate fluctuations. This work clarifies what international reserves are, and how international reserves and related information should be strengthened to promote informed decision making in the public and private sectors, thereby helping improve the functioning of global financial markets.

This book addresses the welfare gains and costs of accumulating foreign exchange reserves and the implications for the functioning of the global financial system. The tremendous growth of central bank reserves has led to an increased focus on raising returns in addition to the traditional preference central banks have for maintaining liquid portfolios. Issues such as asset and currency diversification, the impact of new accounting rules and the profit distribution agreements with the government are analysed, adding new insights to the current debate on the optimal size of central bank reserves. This book brings together a wide range of experts from central banks, investment banks and the academic community.

These guidelines are intended to assist countries in strengthening their policy frameworks for reserve management so that they can become more resilient to shocks that may originate from global financial markets or within the domestic financial system. The guidelines have been developed as part of a broader IMF work program to help strengthen international financial architecture, to promote policies and practices that contribute to stability and transparency in the financial sector, and to reduce external vulnerabilities of member countries.

Explains how the financial crisis spread across the world, how damage was contained and how the monetary world has changed.

International monetary economics essentially deals with three problems, viz. the nature and stability of the international monetary system, the balance of payments adjustment process, and international liquidity (reserves and credit facilities). All three categories are interrelated. The exchange rate system has an important bearing on the manner in which the adjustment process functions, as well as on the need for international liquidity. The adjustment process is an important determinant of the need for international liquidity. The adequacy of international liquidity influences the working of the adjustment process. Ultimately, developments in international liquidity and in the adjustment process determine the nature and stability of the international monetary system; a sustained malfunctioning of the adjustment process - brought about by a serious imbalance in international liquidity or by other causes - will bring about a new international monetary system, either through collapse or reform of the old system. This study deals only with the problem of international liquidity. However, it touches on the two other main aspects of international monetary economics insofar as they have a bearing on international reserves and credit facilities. In the literature international liquidity is most often defined as including international reserves (gold, SDRs, foreign exchange and claims on the IMF) and international credit facilities (IMF drawing rights, EEC support arrangements and central bank multilateral and bilateral credit facilities). This definition will also be followed in this study.

In the late 1990s, international statistical experts confirmed that financial derivatives should be treated as financial assets and that transactions in financial derivatives should be reported as separate transactions rather than as integral parts of the values of underlying transactions or of financial assets to which some derivatives are linked as hedges. Therefore, to parallel revisions made to the System of National Accounts (1993), an addendum and amendments to the fifth edition (1993) of the Balance of Payments Manual (BPM5) were prepared and published, in early 2000, as a supplement entitled Financial Derivatives. This supplement comprises two parts. Part I contains a new chapter in which the features of financial derivatives and treatments appropriate for specific derivatives were described. Part II consists of modifications to those portions of the BPM5 that pertain to financial derivatives. The revisions are shown by means of shading and strikeout. Financial Derivatives is an essential component of the BPM5.