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Abstract
1 International financial crises, such as in the late 1990s, have underscored the importance of disseminating comprehensive information on countries’ international reserves and foreign currency liquidity1 on a timely basis. Deficiencies in such information made it difficult to anticipate and respond to crises by obscuring financial weaknesses and imbalances (see Box 1.1). Moreover, both the complexity and the importance of such information have increased as a result of the ongoing globalization of financial markets and financial innovation. The international financial activities2 that countries’ central banks and government entities undertake occur in myriad forms, involve multiple domestic and foreign entities, and span locations around the globe. To assess countries’ foreign currency liquidity requires supplementing data on international reserves that cover largely cross-border and balance-sheet activities with those on other foreign currency positions and off-balance sheet activities.
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