Reserve Currency
| Rank | Currency | ISO 4217 code (Symbol) |
% daily share (April 2010) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | United States dollar | USD ($) | 84.9% |
| 2 | Euro | EUR (€) | 39.1% |
| 3 | Japanese yen | JPY (¥) | 19.0% |
| 4 | Pound sterling | GBP (£) | 12.9% |
| 5 | Australian dollar | AUD ($) | 7.6% |
| 6 | Swiss franc | CHF (Fr) | 6.4% |
| 7 | Canadian dollar | CAD ($) | 5.3% |
| 8 | Hong Kong dollar | HKD ($) | 2.4% |
| 9 | Swedish krona | SEK (kr) | 2.2% |
| 10 | New Zealand dollar | NZD ($) | 1.6% |
| 11 | South Korean won | KRW (₩) | 1.5% |
| 12 | Singapore dollar | SGD ($) | 1.4% |
| 13 | Norwegian krone | NOK (kr) | 1.3% |
| 14 | Mexican peso | MXN ($) | 1.3% |
| 15 | Indian rupee | INR | 0.9% |
| Other | 12.2% | ||
| Total | 200% | ||
A number of central banks (and commercial banks) keep Canadian dollars as a reserve currency. The Canadian dollar is considered to be a benchmark currency.
In the economy of the Americas, the Canadian dollar plays a similar role to the one that the Australian dollar (AUD) does in the Asia-Pacific region. The Canadian dollar (as a regional reserve currency for banking) has been an important part of the British, French and Dutch Caribbean state's economies and finance systems since the 1950s. The Canadian dollar is held by many central banks in Central America and South America as well. The holding of the Canadian dollar in Latin America is done so because of each nation's nationally important issues of remittances and international trade.
By observing how the Canadian dollar behaves against the US dollar, foreign exchange economists can indirectly observe internal behaviours and patterns in the US economy that could not be seen by direct observation. The Canadian dollar has fully evolved into a global reserve currency only since the 1970s, when it was floated against all other world currencies. Some economists have attributed the rise of importance of the Canadian dollar to the long term effects of the Nixon Shock that effectively ended the Bretton Woods system of global finance.
| Current CAD exchange rates | |
|---|---|
| From Google Finance: | AUD CHF EUR GBP HKD JPY USD INR |
| From Yahoo! Finance: | AUD CHF EUR GBP HKD JPY USD INR |
| From XE.com: | AUD CHF EUR GBP HKD JPY USD INR |
| From OANDA.com: | AUD CHF EUR GBP HKD JPY USD INR |
| From fxtop.com: | AUD CHF EUR GBP HKD JPY USD INR |
Read more about this topic: Canadian Dollar
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