Iam often asked whether the ongoing decline of the dollar implies that it can no longer serve as a reserve currency. My short answer is that most countries no longer hold dollars and other currencies as traditional reserves. The role of foreign exchange balances has changed from being short-term funds used to bridge export-import gaps to being long-term investment funds. In this new world, the dollar has shifted from being almost the sole “reserve currency” of many countries to being the primary “investment currency”, a role that it will continue to play far into the future.
經常有人問我,眼下美元的下行,是否意味著它不再能夠充當儲備貨幣。我給出的簡短回答是:大多數國家已不再將美元和其它貨幣作為傳統儲備貨幣持有。外匯余額的角色已經從填補貿易差額的短期資金,轉變為長期的投資資金。在這個新世界里,美元已經從許多國家近乎唯一的“儲備貨幣”,變成了首要的“投資貨幣”——未來很長時間內,它都將繼續扮演這一角色。