Levels

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold in 2006

See also: List of countries by foreign exchange reserves

At the end of 2007, 63.90% of the identified official foreign exchange reserves in the world were held in United States dollars and 26.5% in euros [1].

Monetary Authorities with the largest foreign reserves in 2009.

Rank Country/Monetary Authority billion USD (end of month) change in year 2007 1 People's Republic of China $ 2132 (Jun 2009) 1[1] +32.9% 2 Japan $ 1019 (Jun 2009)[2] +8.7% - Eurozone $ 531 (Feb 2009) +16.6% 3 Russia $ 401 (Jul 2009) 2 [3] ▼ 4 Republic of China $ 321.09 (Apr 2009) [4] +2.7% 5 India $ 276 (Aug 2009) 2 [5] +64.4% 6 South Korea $ 232 (Jun 2009) ▲ 7 Brazil $ 219 (Aug 2009) 3 +105.9% 8 Hong Kong $ 233 (Aug 2009) +14.6% 9 Singapore $ 166 (Mar 2009) +19.1% 10 Germany $ 144 (Feb 2009) -

Note:

• Note 1: China updates its information quarterly.
• Note 2: Russia and India update their information weekly and monthly.
• Note 3: Brazil updates its information daily.

These few holders account for more than 60% of total world foreign currency reserves. The adequacy of the foreign exchange reserves is more often expressed not as an absolute level, but as a percentage of short-term foreign debt, money supply, or average monthly imports.

On July 15, 2009, the People's Bank of China announced China's foreign exchange reserve had reached $2.132 trillion by far the largest holders of foreign exchange reserves and the first time a country had surpassed the $2 trillion benchmark.