Reserve Currency Composition and COFER Data

Central banks hold foreign-exchange reserves — dollars, euros, yen, and other currencies parked in safe assets like government bonds — to defend their own currency, pay for imports in a crisis, and settle debts. COFER (Currency Composition of Official Foreign Exchange Reserves) is the IMF's quarterly data series showing how roughly $12 trillion of those reserves are split across currencies. It is the main public evidence for claims like "the dollar's share of reserves is falling."

What the numbers show

As of recent COFER releases, the US dollar holds roughly 55–58% of allocated reserves, down from over 70% in the early 2000s, with the euro a distant second near 20% and the yen, sterling, and renminbi splitting most of the rest in single digits. The decline has been gradual, and a meaningful share of it has gone to smaller currencies (Australian dollar, Canadian dollar) rather than to a single rival, since central banks diversify partly for portfolio reasons, not just politics.

Worked example

A central bank reports $400 billion in total reserves, of which $220 billion is allocated (identified by currency) and $180 billion is unallocated (not broken out). COFER only reports shares over the allocated portion, so a jump in the reported dollar share can simply reflect a country deciding to disclose more of its holdings — not a change in what it actually owns.