Foreign reserves - Definition and Overview

Foreign exchange reserves are the foreign currency deposits held by national banks of different nations. These are assets of Governments which are held in different hard currencies such as Dollar, Sterling, Euro and Yen.

Levels

The countries with the largest foreign reserves are Japan, the People's Republic of China (mainland only, excluding Hong Kong and Macao) ($514.5 billion at the end of September 2004), the Republic of China (Taiwan), Hong Kong, the Republic of Korea, India and the Holy See.

See also

• Reserve currency

External links

• WSJ.com - Speculative Funds Going to China Worry Officials About Yuan's Peg (http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110011541276170369,00.html?mod=economy%5Flead%5Fstory%5Flsc)
• China and Reality of Foreign Exchange (http://en.ce.cn/Insight/200411/01/t20041101_2147714.shtml)
• United Nation Database for foreign reserve (A little tricky to use) (http://unstats.un.org/unsd/cdbdemo/cdb_class_xrxx.asp?class_code=83)
• Foreign Exchange of different countries annually (http://investintaiwan.nat.gov.tw/en/env/stats/foreign_exchange.html)
• Current Foreign Exchange of different countries with Detail (http://www.imf.org/external/np/sta/ir/colist.htm)

Data

• Press Release: Revised IMF Annual Report Data on Official Foreign ... - November 19, 2003 (http://www.imf.org/external/np/sec/pr/2003/pr03196.htm)

Speeches

• FRB: Speech, Greenspan -- Currency reserves and debt -- April 29, 1999 (http://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/speeches/1999/19990429.htm)