Survey_PJ_1996

Abstract

Porter and Judson (1996) explain the very strong increase in the foreign holdings of US dollar in the nineties by the Westward opening of the Eastern European countries and Russia and instability in the Latin American economies. Recent estimates show that in Russia the level of US dollar holdings is about 60 billion dollars (See US Treasury, 2000). These holdings mainly reflect efforts by residents of some countries with high financial instability to substitute a more stable dollar for their own currency and therefore are not necessarily linked to the US domestic conditions.