2.5 RMB in global foreign exchange reserves

According to the COFER database in IMF,global official foreign exchange reserves

comprise of Allocated Reserves and Unallocated Reserves. By the end of 2011,the amount of Allocated Reserves was 5.65 trillion USD,accounts for 55.37% of total reserves,and that of Unallocated Reserves was 4.55 trillion USD,accounts for 44.63% of total reserves.

IMF didn't make any separate statistics for RMB—denominated debts,RMB debts are included in Unallocated Reserves.On September 6,2011,the central bank of Nigeria announced that RMB was chosen as its FER currency to diversify its foreign exchange assets.Nigeria has a foreign exchange reserve of 33 billion USD to date,and 5% to 10% of which is RMB assets.There are a small amount of RMB assets in FER of Malaysia,South Korea,Cambodia,Belarus,Russia and Philippines.

In 2011,U.S. dollar was the most important reserve currency in Allocated Reserves,the amount of USD reserve was 3.51 trillion USD,62.12% of total Allocated Reserves；Euro was 1.41 trillion USD,25.04% of total；British pound 0.22 trillion USD,3.88% of total；Japanese yen 0.2 trillion USD,3.71% of total；and CHF 7.075 billion USD,0.13% of total.Impaired by the European Sovereign Debt Crisis,the amount of Euro and British pound reserves decreased,and U.S. dollar consolidated its position as international foreign exchange reserves currency,and the proportion of its reserve rose 1.12%(Table 2—9).

Notes:1.Data of allocated reserves come from IMF COFER database；proportion of each currency is the ratio of the amount of reserves denominated by this currency to the amount of total allocated reserves.

2.The amount of unallocated reserves equals to difference between that of global reserves and allocated reserves.

Source:IMF COFER Database,International Financial Statistics released by IMF.

From the aspect of holding entities,emerging economies and developing countries hold two thirds of all FERs,and none of them is the issuer of these reserve currencies,so when choosing reserve currency,they have a greater range of options and flexibility.If they add RMB into their foreign exchange reserve,the degree of RMB internationalization could be raised directly.