The US dollar's share of allocated currency reserves fell in the first quarter, while global central bank holdings surged to a record near $10 trillion. Data from the International Monetary Fund showed on Thursday that the US currency's share of the roughly $5.3 trillion of world reserves, of which the composition is known, slipped to 60.7 percent from 61.5 percent in the prior quarter and 61.6 percent a year earlier.
The drop in the dollar's share of central bank reserves reflected a continuing trend among these institutions to diversify away from the greenback. It also reflected the dollar's weakness in the first quarter, falling 4 percent as measured by the ICE dollar index.
Overall reserve accumulation by global central banks hit a record at nearly $9.7 trillion, rising for an eighth straight quarter. Part of the jump in global reserves was the increase in developing countries' holdings to $6.5 trillion, rising 6 percent in the first quarter from the previous three months. Unallocated reserves now accounted for more than 45 percent of total global holdings, up from about 44.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010. The euro's share was steady at around 26.5 percent in the first quarter from 26.3 pct in the previous quarter.Sterling's share in global reserves increased to 4.1 percent from 3.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010.
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