Data and Statistics
Last Updated: September 25, 2009
International Financial Statistics:
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International Liquidity
Data on international liquidity are presented in the country tables and in world tables on reserves. The international liquidity section in the country tables comprises lines for total reserves minus gold, gold holdings, other foreign assets and foreign liabilities of the monetary authorities, and foreign accounts of other financial institutions. The euro area section for international liquidity covers assets of the European Central Bank (ECB) and the national central banks (NCBs) of the countries that have adopted the euro (details below).
Total Reserves (Minus Gold) and Gold Holdings
Total Reserves Minus Gold (line 1 l.d) is the sum of the items Foreign Exchange, Reserve Position in the Fund, and the U.S. dollar value of SDR holdings by monetary authorities. Monetary authorities comprise central banks and, to the extent that they perform monetary authorities’ functions, currency boards, exchange stabilization funds, and treasuries.
Official Gold Holdings (lines 1ad and 1and) are expressed in millions of fine troy ounces and valued, according to national practice, in U.S. dollars.
Under Total Reserves Minus Gold, the line for Foreign Exchange (1d.d) includes monetary authorities’ claims on nonresidents in the form of foreign banknotes, bank deposits, treasury bills, short- and long-term government securities, ECUs (for periods before January 1999), and other claims usable in the event of balance of payments need.
For IFS yearbook users, this background information on foreign exchange is particularly useful: Before December 1971, when the U.S. dollar was at par with the SDR, foreign exchange data were compiled and expressed in terms of U.S. dollars at official par values. Conversions from national currencies to U.S. dollars from December 1971 through January 1973 were calculated at the cross rates reflecting the parities and central rates agreed to in December 1971. From February 1973 through June 1974, foreign exchange was valued at the cross rates of parities or central rates for countries having effective parities or central rates, and at market rates for the Canadian dollar, Irish pound, Italian lira, Japanese yen, and pound sterling. Beginning in July 1974, foreign exchange is valued at end-of-month market rates or, in the absence of market rate quotations, at other prevailing official rates.
Total Reserves for the Euro Area
Until December 31, 1998, member countries of the European Union (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom) held ECU deposits with the European Monetary Cooperation Fund (EMCF) and/or its successor, the European Monetary Institute. The reserves data for each country excluded, from gold and foreign exchange holdings, the deposits of gold and foreign exchange with the EMCF, but the data included, in foreign exchange holdings, the equivalent amounts of ECU deposits.
These deposits were transferred from the EMCF to the EMI upon its creation on January 1, 1994, and to the European Central Bank (ECB) when it succeeded the EMI on June 1, 1998. Each national central bank (NCB) deposited gold and foreign exchange with the ECB. On January 1, 1999, the euro replaced the ECU at a rate of one euro per one ECU.
Total reserves for the euro area and individual euro area countries are based on the statistical definition of international reserves adopted by the ECB’s Statistics Committee in December 1998. Defined on a euro area-wide residency basis, they include reserve assets denominated only in currencies of non-euro area countries. All positions with residents of other euro area countries and with the ECB are excluded from reserve assets.
For the euro area countries, Total Reserves minus Gold (line 1 l.d) is defined in broad accordance with the fifth edition of the Balance of Payments Manual. It includes the monetary authorities’ holdings of SDRs, reserve position in the Fund, and foreign exchange, including financial derivative claims on non-euro area countries. It excludes claims among euro area countries and all euro-denominated claims on non-euro area countries. Total reserves of the euro area comprise the reserve holdings of the NCBs and ECB. Definitions of reserves at the national and euro area levels are harmonized.
Other Foreign Assets and Foreign Liabilities of the Central Bank
Time series, where significant, are also provided in international liquidity sections on other foreign assets and other foreign liabilities of the central bank.
Other Assets (line 3..d) usually comprises claims on nonresidents that are of limited usability in the event of balance of payments need, such as balances under bilateral payments agreements and holdings of inconvertible currencies. (Claims on nonresidents under Other Assets (line 3..d) are included in line 11.)
Other Liabilities (line 4..d) comprises foreign liabilities of the central bank other than use of Fund credit (GRA), SAF, PRGF, and Trust Fund loans outstanding and SDR allocations. Positions with the Fund are reported separately, in SDRs, in the Fund position section of the country tables.
Foreign Accounts of the Rest of the Financial Corporations
Where significant, foreign accounts of financial corporations other than the central bank are reported. The measures provided are normally U.S. dollar equivalents of time series reported in the appropriate monetary statistics sections as follows: line 7a.d is derived from line 21; line 7b.d is derived from line 26c; line 7e.d is derived from line 41; and line 7f.d is derived from line 46c. Sometimes the measures are reported directly in U.S. dollars and may differ slightly in coverage.
In addition for some countries, summary data are provided on the foreign accounts of special or international license banks that operate locally but are not presently covered in the monetary statistics section. Their foreign assets are reported as line 7k.d, and their foreign liabilities as line 7m.d, when available (although 7m.d is not shown separately if it is equal to line 7k.d).
World Tables on Reserves
World tables on reserves report all country table time series on reserves, other than gold at national valuation, and present totals for countries, country groups, and the world.
Also provided is a table on total reserves, with gold valued at SDR 35 per ounce. A foot table to that table reports total reserves of all countries, including gold valued both at SDR 35 per ounce and at market prices. And the yearbook includes a world table on the ratio of nongold reserves (line 1 l.d) to imports (line 71..d), expressed in terms of the number of weeks of imports covered by the stock of nongold reserves.
Except for the world table on gold holdings in physical terms, world tables on reserves are expressed in SDRs. Foreign exchange holdings are expressed in SDRs by converting the U.S. dollar values shown in the country tables on the basis of the end-period U.S. dollar/SDR rate.
Similarly, a foot table to the world table on gold indicates gold holdings valued at SDR 35 per ounce and at market prices for all countries, the IMF, the ECB, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), and the world. A simple addition of the gold held by all of these holders would involve double-counting, because most of the gold deposited with the BIS is also included in countries’ official gold reserves. IFS therefore reports BIS gold holdings net of gold deposits, and negative figures for BIS gold holdings are balanced by forward operations. This foot table also provides data on the U.S. dollar price of gold on the London market, the U.S. dollar/SDR rate, and the endperiod derived market price of gold in terms of SDRs.