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The cost of holding foreign exchange reserves
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The cost of holding foreign exchange reserves

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  • Eduardo Levi Yeyati

    (Universidad Torcuato Di Tella/The Brookings Institution)

  • Juan Francisco Gómez

    (Universidad de Buenos Aires)

Abstract

Recent studies that have emphasized the costs of accumulating reserves for self-insurance purposes have overlooked two potentially important side-effects. First, the impact of the resulting lower spreads on the service costs of the stock of sovereign debt, which could substantially reduce the marginal cost of holding reserves. Second, when reserve accumulation reflects countercyclical LAW central bank interventions, the actual cost of reserves should be measured as the sum of valuation effects due to exchange rate changes and the local-to-foreign currency exchange rate differential (the inverse of a carry trade profit and loss total return flow), which yields a cost that is typically smaller than the one arising from traditional estimates based on the sovereign credit risk spreads. We document those effect s empirically to illustrate that the cost of holding reserves may have been considerably smaller than usually assumed in both the academic literature and the policy debate.

Suggested Citation

  • Eduardo Levi Yeyati & Juan Francisco Gómez, 2021. "The cost of holding foreign exchange reserves," Working Papers 48, Red Nacional de Investigadores en Economía (RedNIE).
    • Handle: RePEc:aoz:wpaper:48
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    Cited by:

    1. Yeonjeong Lee & Seong-Min Yoon, 2020. "Relationship between International Reserves and FX Rate Movements," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-24, August.
    2. Eduardo Levy-Yeyati & Juan Francisco Gómez, 2022. "Leaning-Against-the-Wind Intervention and the “Carry-Trade” View of the Cost of Reserves," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 33(5), pages 853-877, November.
    3. Piotr Misztal, 2021. "The Size and the Main Determinants of China’s Official Currency Reserves in the Period 1990-2019," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(1), pages 568-582.
    4. Federico Sturzenegger, 2020. "How should Central Banks accumulate reserves?," Working Papers 139, Universidad de San Andres, Departamento de Economia, revised May 2020.
    5. Eduardo Levy Yeyati & Andrew Powell, 2023. "Sovereign Debt Management," IDB Publications (Book Chapters), in: Andrew Powell & Oscar Mauricio Valencia (ed.), Dealing with Debt, edition 1, chapter 6, pages 123-160, Inter-American Development Bank.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    International reserves exchange rate policy capital flows financial crisis;

    JEL classification:

    • E42 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Monetary Sytsems; Standards; Regimes; Government and the Monetary System
    • E52 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Monetary Policy
    • F33 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - International Monetary Arrangements and Institutions
    • F41 - International Economics - - Macroeconomic Aspects of International Trade and Finance - - - Open Economy Macroeconomics

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