18.2.22

How to build a currency basket III? Benchmarks

To continue with our approach about building a currency basket, we will try to look for different benchmarks. Perhaps, you don´t know but this question is one of the most complicated nowadays. For instance, the Central Bank of China keeps the percentage of their reserves portfolio in secret (that would be a really good benchmark!).

So let´s start with our first option: the SDR (Special Drawing Rights) designed by the IMF. They held the following: USD 42%, EUR 31%, RMB 11%, JPY 8%, and GBP 8%. There is an interesting link about the concept of a new reserve currency here.

Our second benchmark is COFER (Currency Composition of Official Foreign Exchange Reserves) with the following portfolio: USD 59%, EUR 21%, JPY 6%, GBP 5%, and rest others.

Russia follows a bi-currency basket (0.55 USD, 0.45 EUR) to guide its interventions. The last years, it has broaden its exchange bands adding AUD and CAD to its reserves. Kuwait´s currency is linked to a basket of currencies as well.

Should gold be considered another currency?