United States Foreign Exchange Reserves (2024)

FAQs

United States Foreign Exchange Reserves? ›

Most foreign exchange reserves are held in U.S. dollars, with China being the largest foreign currency reserve holder in the world. The top foreign reserve holders tend to be countries in Asia and South Asia. The U.S. only holds a relatively small $242 billion in reserves as of Q2 2022.

Most foreign exchange reserves are held in U.S. dollars, with China being the largest foreign currency reserve holder in the world. The top foreign reserve holders tend to be countries in Asia and South Asia. The U.S. only holds a relatively small $242 billion in reserves as of Q2 2022.

U.S. official reserve assets 2000-2022

In 2022, the official reserve assets of the United States totaled to about 706.91 billion U.S. dollars. This is an increase from the year 2000, when the Federal Reserve's assets came to 128.4 billion U.S. dollars.

Brief: The US Federal Reserve's Forex Reserves have been declining since the year 2012, which was the time when the impact of the Taper Tantrums started to resonate. As per our analysis, the reason behind the fall of the American forex is less to do with intervention and more to do with appreciating Dollar.

Reserve assets include gold and tradable foreign currencies, such as the USD or EUR. These assets can be used by a central bank or country to manipulate currency value or to meet the balance of payments. Congressional Research Service. "The U.S. Dollar as the World's Dominant Reserve Currency," Page 1.

Of all the countries in the world, China had, by far, the largest international reserves in 2024, with 3.59 trillion USD in reserves and foreign currency liquidity.

As of June 2024, China's foreign exchange reserves totaled US$3.222 trillion, which is the highest foreign exchange reserves of any country. The management of foreign exchange reserves is governed by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) and the People's Bank of China.

The public owes 74 percent of the current federal debt. Intragovernmental debt accounts for 26 percent or $5.9 trillion. The public includes foreign investors and foreign governments. These two groups account for 30 percent of the debt.

Prior to 1971, the US dollar was backed by gold. Today, the dollar is backed by 2 things: the government's ability to generate revenues (via debt or taxes), and its authority to compel economic participants to transact in dollars.

Current holdings

As of 2021, the U.S. gold reserves total 8,134 metric tons.

What currency will replace the US dollar? ›

Some say it will be the euro; others, perhaps the Japanese yen or China's renminbi. And some call for a new world reserve currency, possibly based on the IMF's Special Drawing Right or SDR, a reserve asset. None of these candidates, however, is without flaws.

In December of 2023, Russia and China expressed 'their intent to abandon the US dollar in their bilateral transactions'. For several years, Russia had already been using the Euro as a 'preferred settlement currency within BRICS'.

1. Kuwaiti dinar. The Kuwaiti dinar (KWD) is the world's strongest currency, and this is for a number of reasons.

The Kuwaiti Dinar (KWD), recognized as the highest-valued currency globally, symbolizes Kuwait's economic strength.

The dollar's role as the primary reserve currency for the global economy allows the United States to borrow money more easily and impose painful financial sanctions.

Even with de-dollarization, the U.S. dollar remains the world's currency reserve. The status is due primarily to the fact that countries accumulated so much of it and that it was still the most stable and liquid form of exchange.

General Balance Sheet Trends

Overall, as shown in table 1, the size of the Federal Reserve's balance sheet decreased roughly $90 billion from about $8.8 trillion on September 28, 2022, to about $8.7 trillion as of March 29, 2023.

Having more than 300 billion barrels of oil reserves, Venezuela has the most oil reserves in the world. Saudi Arabia has the second-largest oil reserves globally. Venezuela still faces economic difficulties in spite of its enormous natural resource base.

The dollar has been the world's principal reserve currency since the end of World War II and is the most widely used currency for international trade.

Nearly 190,000 Army Reserve Soldiers and 11,000 Civilians are present in all 50 States, five U.S. territories, and deployed to 23 countries around the world.