In Search of Hard Currencies
Varying theories of monetary policy, and the ever-present risk of unexpected geopolitical and policy events, preclude any claim of a currency's hardness from being called definitive.
The paper currencies of some developed countries have earned recognition as hard currencies at various times, including the United States dollar, Euro, Swiss franc, British pound sterling, Japanese yen, and to a lesser extent, the Canadian dollar and Australian dollar. Times change, and a currency that is considered weak at one time may become stronger, or vice versa. However, countries that consistently run large trade surpluses tend to have hard currencies.
One barometer of hard currencies is how they are favored within the foreign-exchange reserves of countries:
| 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | Latest Data '12 Quarter II |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US dollar | 59.0% | 62.1% | 65.2% | 69.3% | 71.0% | 70.5% | 70.7% | 66.5% | 65.8% | 66.0% | 66.4% | 65.7% | 64.1% | 64.1% | 62.1% | 61.8% | 62.2% | 61.9% |
| Euro | 17.9% | 18.8% | 19.8% | 24.2% | 25.3% | 24.9% | 24.3% | 25.2% | 26.3% | 26.4% | 27.6% | 26.0% | 25.0% | 25.1% | ||||
| German mark | 15.8% | 14.7% | 14.5% | 13.8% | ||||||||||||||
| French franc | 2.4% | 1.8% | 1.4% | 1.6% | ||||||||||||||
| Pound sterling | 2.1% | 2.7% | 2.6% | 2.7% | 2.9% | 2.8% | 2.7% | 2.9% | 2.6% | 3.2% | 3.6% | 4.2% | 4.7% | 4.0% | 4.3% | 3.9% | 3.8% | 3.8% |
| Japanese yen | 6.8% | 6.7% | 5.8% | 6.2% | 6.4% | 6.3% | 5.2% | 4.5% | 4.1% | 3.8% | 3.7% | 3.2% | 2.9% | 3.1% | 2.9% | 3.7% | 3.5% | 3.8% |
| Swiss franc | 0.3% | 0.2% | 0.4% | 0.3% | 0.2% | 0.3% | 0.3% | 0.4% | 0.2% | 0.2% | 0.1% | 0.2% | 0.2% | 0.1% | 0.1% | 0.1% | 0.1% | 0.1% |
| Other | 13.6% | 11.7% | 10.2% | 6.1% | 1.6% | 1.4% | 1.2% | 1.4% | 1.9% | 1.9% | 1.9% | 1.5% | 1.8% | 2.2% | 3.1% | 4.4% | 5.4% | 5.3% |
| Sources: | ||||||||||||||||||
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Famous quotes containing the words search and/or hard:
“You that do search for every purling spring
Which from the ribs of old Parnassus flows,
And every flower, not sweet perhaps, which grows
Near thereabouts into your poesy wring;
You that do dictionary’s method bring
Into your rhymes, running in rattling rows;”
—Sir Philip Sidney (1554–1586)
“There are many of us who cannot but feel dismal about the future of various cultures. Often it is hard not to agree that we are becoming culinary nitwits, dependent upon fast foods and mass kitchens and megavitamins for our basically rotten nourishment.”
—M.F.K. Fisher (1908–1992)