## Dollar’s Share of Reserves Held Steady in Second Quarter When Adjusted for FX Moves

_IMF Blog, October 1, 2025_

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**Canonical URL:** [Dollar’s Share of Reserves Held Steady in Second Quarter When Adjusted for FX Moves](https://www.imf.org/en/blogs/articles/2025/10/01/dollars-share-of-reserves-held-steady-in-second-quarter-when-adjusted-for-fx-moves)

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## Bibliographic details
- Authors: Glen Kwende, Erin Nephew, Carlos Snchez-Muoz
- Published: October 1, 2025

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### COFER data and measurement detail
- COFER tracks currency composition of global foreign exchange reserves based on voluntary, confidential reports by 149 economies.
- Reported reserve shares are denominated in US dollars, so shifts in exchange rates change reported shares even if central banks do not buy or sell assets.
- Movements in interest rates can also affect reported currency shares, but the impact on currency shares was relatively small in the second quarter.

### Exchange-rate movements in 2025 and their magnitude
- The DXY index fell more than 10 percent in the first half of the year, its biggest drop since 1973.
- The dollar depreciated by 7.9 percent against the euro in the second quarter, and by 10.6 percent in the first half.
- The dollar fell by 9.6 percent against the Swiss franc in the second quarter, and by more than 11 percent in the first six months, its weakest first-half performance against the franc in more than a decade.

### Impact of valuation (exchange-rate) effects on reported reserve shares
- Raw COFER data: dollar’s share of allocated reserves fell to 56.32 percent at the end of the second quarter from 57.79 percent at the end of the first quarter, a decline of 1.47 percentage points.
- Exchange-rate–adjusted figure: holding exchange rates constant, the dollar’s share would have been 57.67 percent at the end of the second quarter.
- Currency movements explain 92 percent of the reduction of the dollar’s share during the three months through June.
- For the euro:
  - Reported share rose to 21.13 percent in the second quarter from 20.00 percent in the prior three months, an increase of 1.13 percentage points.
  - Valuation effects accounted for 1.17 percentage points of this increase.
  - Holding exchange rates constant, the euro’s share would have fallen to 19.96 percent in the second quarter (a decline of 0.04 percentage points).
- For the pound: the valuation effect obscures the direction of change—reported share appears to have gone up while holding exchange rates constant the share would have gone down.

### Interpretation and implications
- Much of the apparent shift away from the US dollar in COFER data for the second quarter is attributable to exchange-rate valuation effects rather than active portfolio reallocations by central banks.
- Exchange-rate-adjusted COFER figures provide a more accurate view of how central banks are managing reserve portfolios and of the dollar’s underlying share in global reserves.
- The latest reserves data, once adjusted for exchange rate changes, suggest that the dollar share of central bank reserve holdings has not declined to the extent that unadjusted figures indicate.

*Source: IMF Chart of the Week, October 1, 2025.*

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## References

- [COFER](https://data.imf.org/en/datasets/IMF.STA:COFER)
- [Dollar Dominance in the International Reserve System: An Update](https://www.imf.org/en/Blogs/Articles/2024/06/11/dollar-dominance-in-the-international-reserve-system-an-update)
- [Dollar Dominance and the Rise of Nontraditional Reserve Currencies](https://www.imf.org/en/Blogs/Articles/2022/06/01/blog-dollar-dominance-and-the-rise-of-nontraditional-reserve-currencies)
- [US Dollar Share of Global Foreign Exchange Reserves Drops to 25-Year Low](https://www.imf.org/en/Blogs/Articles/2021/05/05/blog-us-dollar-share-of-global-foreign-exchange-reserves-drops-to-25-year-low)

_Source: https://www.imf.org/en/blogs/articles/2025/10/01/dollars-share-of-reserves-held-steady-in-second-quarter-when-adjusted-for-fx-moves_