US dollar continues to dominate central bank FX reserves
Nearly all central banks hold dollars, but emerging market reserve managers have the highest allocations
Nearly all respondents (98.7%) to the Reserve Benchmarks 2026 hold a portion of their foreign exchange reserves in US dollars, broadly unchanged on the 2025 benchmark. But emerging market and developing economy (EMDE) reserve managers tend to allocate a higher percentage of their currency portfolio to the greenback – 71.2% on average – than their advanced economy (AE) counterparts (49.5%).
The euro also has broad appeal: 82.9% of surveyed central banks keep it on their books. In 2026, EMDE banks
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