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The Money Desk · Blog
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Is the Dollar Losing Its Dominance? What the Latest Reserve Data Shows

The dollar has lost some reserve share over time, yet 2025Q4 IMF data show it remains far ahead of the euro and renminbi. Reserve figures alone cannot prove an imminent replacement.
From TheFinanceBase Team3 min to read
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The dollar’s share of global foreign-exchange reserves has fallen over the long term, but the available figures do not show an imminent handover to another currency. In the IMF’s 2025Q4 COFER data, published March 27, 2026, the dollar accounted for 56.77% of reported reserves, compared with 20.25% for the euro and 1.95% for the renminbi. Reserve share is one measure of international use—not a complete verdict on whether the dollar is being displaced.

What the reserve figures say

The dollar has lost relative share from its earlier peak, while remaining far ahead of the next-largest reserve currency. The figures below come from two sources and periods, so they should be read as separate snapshots rather than a single continuous series.

Measure Dollar Euro Renminbi Source and period
Share of disclosed global official reserves 58% 20% 2% Federal Reserve Board, 2024 observations, published in its 2025 edition
Share of reported foreign-exchange reserves 56.77% 20.25% 1.95% IMF COFER, 2025Q4 data, published March 27, 2026

The Federal Reserve Board reports that the dollar’s share peaked at 72% in 2001 and was 58% in 2024. That is a decline of 14 percentage points over the period, not a measure of how much the dollar’s exchange rate fell. In its 2024 snapshot, the Fed also puts the yen at 6% and the pound at 5% of disclosed global official reserves.

In the IMF’s 2025Q4 COFER release, total foreign-exchange reserves were $13.14 trillion. The brief says 10.75% of reserves had an imputed currency composition, and that exchange-rate valuation effects were muted in that quarter. Those details matter when interpreting the reported shares: COFER tracks currency composition of reported official foreign-exchange reserves, and not every reserve’s currency is identified in the published breakdown.

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Why reserve share does not settle the question

Central-bank reserves are only one role a currency can play internationally. The IMF’s February 19, 2026 briefing says the dollar continues to dominate trade invoicing, international reserves, international borrowing, and global payments. These functions overlap, but a reserve-share chart does not measure all of them. A fuller assessment would also look at currency use in banking and trading, and at the depth and accessibility of financial markets.

That distinction also helps separate a market-price move from a change in institutional use. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported a 7.2% broad trade-weighted depreciation of the dollar across 2025. This is an exchange-rate measure: it describes the dollar’s value against a trade-weighted group of currencies. It is not an estimate of the dollar’s share of global reserves, and by itself does not establish a loss of reserve-currency status.

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Where diversification is happening—and what it does not prove

Reserve managers have diversified toward a wider set of currencies, rather than consolidating their holdings around one obvious successor. In a June 2024 analysis, IMF economists described gains among nontraditional currencies and said the renminbi’s adjusted reserve share had declined since 2022. That is evidence of a more varied reserve landscape, not evidence that the renminbi is taking over the dollar’s role.

Geopolitical concerns are often raised in discussions of reserve diversification, but the figures cited here do not establish a single cause for the long-run decline or prove a sudden post-2022 exodus. Reserve-share changes can reflect several forces, including portfolio choices and valuation effects. The IMF’s note that valuation effects were muted in 2025Q4 is specific to that quarter; it should not be applied to every earlier movement.

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Why the dollar still has advantages

The Federal Reserve identifies the scale and strength of the U.S. economy, stability, openness to trade and capital flows, property rights, and the rule of law as factors supporting the dollar’s international role. These are reasons the currency remains widely used, not a guarantee that its position will never weaken. Whether they continue to attract global users depends on how institutions and markets develop over time.

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What would make a shift look more like displacement?

A stronger case for a change in leadership would require more than a falling reserve percentage or a weaker exchange rate. The relevant question is whether another currency—or a durable mix of currencies—gains ground across several functions at once.

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  • Reserve holdings: Look for sustained changes across multiple reporting periods, while noting whether exchange-rate valuation is affecting the comparison.
  • Trade and payments: Check whether other currencies gain a larger role in invoicing and cross-border payments, not just in central-bank portfolios.
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The available figures show erosion in the dollar’s relative reserve share and diversification among other currencies. They do not, on their own, demonstrate that a replacement has emerged or that a handover is imminent.

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