Crikey, talk about being blunt.
The UN’s Conference on Trade and Development put out a somewhat forthright view on the subject of international-reserve currencies on Monday. In no uncertain terms, the UN appears to be calling for the end of dollar hegemony.
As Bloomberg reported (our emphasis):
Sept. 7 (Bloomberg) — The dollar’s role in international trade should be reduced by establishing a new currency to protect emerging markets from the “confidence game” of financial speculation, the United Nations said.
UN countries should agree on the creation of a global reserve bank to issue the currency and to monitor the national exchange rates of its members, the Geneva-based UN Conference on Trade and Development said today in a report.
China, India, Brazil and Russia this year called for a replacement to the dollar as the main reserve currency after the financial crisis sparked by the collapse of the U.S. mortgage market led to the worst global recession since World War II. China, the world’s largest holder of dollar reserves, said a supranational currency such as the International Monetary Fund’s special drawing rights, or SDRs, may add stability.
“There’s a much better chance of achieving a stable pattern of exchange rates in a multilaterally-agreed framework for exchange-rate management,” Heiner Flassbeck, co-author of the report and a UNCTAD director, said in an interview from Geneva. “An initiative equivalent to Bretton Woods or the European Monetary System is needed.”
All of which fuelled a small fall in the Dollar index:
But not so much in the dollar against the euro:
Related links:
Another day, another dollar debate – FT Alphaville
Is a global super-currency on the agenda? – FT Alphaville