Description of table F.200 - Monetary Gold and Special Drawing Rights (SDRs)

Monetary gold (including allocated gold accounts) consists of two subcategories, physical gold bullion and unallocated gold accounts. Gold bullion takes the form of coins, ingots, or bars with a purity of at least 995 parts per thousand. Gold held as a valuable by commercial banks or as inventories by some specialized industries--for example, jewelers--are excluded. Transactions in monetary gold consist of purchases and sales of gold among monetary authorities and are recorded in the financial account of the domestic sectors as increases (decreases) in assets, and the counterparts are recorded as decreases (increases) in assets of the rest of the world. Gold bullion held as a reserve asset is the only financial asset with no corresponding liability. At present, all U.S. monetary gold is "monetized": That is, the Exchange Stabilization Fund, an entity within the Treasury Department, holds all monetary gold and issues a gold certificate equal to the value of the gold to the Federal Reserve System, which increases the value of the Treasury's deposit account by the same amount. In the financial accounts, monetary gold is an asset of the federal government reported at market value, while gold certificates, shown on table F./L.234 Identified Miscellaneous Financial Claims - Part II, are an asset of the monetary authority sector. SDRs are international reserve assets that the IMF created to supplement the reserves of IMF member countries. The SDR is neither a currency nor a claim on the IMF. Rather, it is a potential claim on the freely usable currencies of IMF members. Holders of SDRs can obtain these currencies in exchange for their SDRs in two ways: (1) through the arrangement of voluntary exchanges between members and (2) by the IMF designating members with strong external positions to purchase SDRs from members with weak external positions. SDRs are allocated in proportion to the countries' respective quotas. SDRs are valued at an administrative rate determined by the IMF. The IMF determines the value of SDRs daily in U.S. dollars by summing the values (which are based on market exchange rates) of a weighted basket of currencies. The basket and weights are subject to revision from time to time. SDR allocations represent the amount the federal government would owe to the IMF should the United States withdraw its membership from the IMF. Thus, in the financial accounts, SDR allocations are a net increase in federal government liabilities and net acquisition of financial assets of the rest of the world. Levels represent the accumulation of these allocations, plus changes due to the fluctuation of the exchange rate. Since 1970, there have been eight allocations of SDRs to IMF member countries in proportion to their IMF quotas, the latest allocation being made in 2021. SDRs can be used for a wide range of transactions and operations, including for acquiring other IMF members' currencies, settling financial operations, making donations, and extending loans. SDRs may also be used in swap arrangements and as security for the performance of financial obligations. In the financial accounts, SDR holdings represent the accumulation of SDR allocations and any change in value through these transactions or operations, interest paid or received, and administrative expenses. Official reserve assets are transacted between official agencies of the world's countries to settle international accounts. U.S. official reserve assets are comprised of monetary gold, SDRs, net U.S. reserve position in the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and official holdings in foreign currency. The reserve position in the IMF is shown on tables F./L.205 Other Deposits. Official holdings in foreign currency by the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve System include foreign-currency-denominated deposits, securities, and repurchase agreements and are included on instrument tables F./L.202 Interbank Assets and Liabilities, F./L.205 Other deposits, F./L.207 Federal Funds and Security Repurchase Agreements, and F./L.213 Corporate and Foreign Bonds. Data on U.S. official reserve accounts is available in the Bureau of Economic Analysis' International Transactions and International Investment Position statistics.



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