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As IMF meets, Russian finance minister questions dollar''s reserve role

Section: Daily Dispatches

By Steve Johnson
Financial Times, London
Friday, April 21, 2006

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/a73b2234-d128-11da-a38b-0000779e2340.html

The US dollar fell against the euro in European morning trade on
Friday as Sweden's central bank said it had slashed its dollar
holdings almost in half.

The Riksbank revealed that it had cut the proportion of dollars in
its reserves from 37 to 20 per cent, as well as selling off all its
holdings of yen, which previously amounted to 8 per cent of its
reserves.

The central bank balanced these disposals by increasing its holdings
of euros from 37 to 50 per cent, as well as building a new Norwegian
krone position of 10 per cent.

Although Sweden's reserves are small, at around $21 billion, and the
Riksbank said its re-weighting was complete, the news thrust the
ongoing issue of potential central bank diversification out of the
dollar back into the limelight.

"Today's announcement will merely add to market fears that the end
to the Federal Reserve tightening cycle will encourage more
diversification away from the dollar, and into the most liquid
alternative of the euro," said Chris Turner, head of FX strategy
research at ING Financial Markets, who reiterated its view that the
euro will return to $1.35 by the end of the year.

The dollar slipped 0.2c to $1.2334 against the euro, Y0.15 to
Y117.31 against the yen and 0.3c to $1.7811 versus sterling.

However, currency moves were kept in check by a degree of
uncertainty ahead of this weekend's meeting of G7 finance ministers,
where the issues of global imbalances and Chinese currency policy
will be on the agenda.

The yen was broadly strong, ticking up Y0.3 to Y144.35 against the
euro and Y0.2 to Y208.59 against sterling as the Japanese Life
Insurers' Association said the conditions for a Japanese rate rise
by mid-year were improving, and that the sector would become active
buyers of Japanese government bonds once yields reached 3 per cent.

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