The Social Cost of Foreign Exchange Reserves

26 Pages Posted: 15 May 2006

See all articles by Dani Rodrik

Dani Rodrik

Harvard University - Harvard Kennedy School (HKS); Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR); National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

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Date Written: January 2006

Abstract

There has been a very rapid rise since the early 1990s in foreign reserves held by developing countries. These reserves have climbed to almost 30% of developing countries' GDP and 8 months of imports. Assuming reasonable spreads between the yield on reserve assets and the cost of foreign borrowing, the income loss to these countries amounts to close to 1% of GDP. Conditional on existing levels of short-term foreign borrowing, this does not represent too steep a price as an insurance premium against financial crises. But why developing countries have not tried harder to reduce short-term foreign liabilities in order to achieve the same level of liquidity (thereby paying a smaller cost in terms of reserve accumulation) remains an important puzzle.

Keywords: Emerging markets, financial crises

JEL Classification: F4

Suggested Citation

Rodrik, Dani, The Social Cost of Foreign Exchange Reserves (January 2006). CEPR Discussion Paper No. 5483, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=902347

Dani Rodrik (Contact Author)

Harvard University - Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) ( email )

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Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

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National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

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