Countries by Foreign Exchange Reserves — 2025
Countries by foreign exchange reserves — what the ranking captures
Foreign exchange reserves are the “financial cushion” a central bank can deploy when markets get stressed: defending the currency, smoothing volatility, financing essential imports, or meeting external obligations. In many official presentations, “FX reserves” is used as shorthand for gross official reserves — a broader concept that can include foreign-currency assets plus monetary gold, SDR holdings, and the reserve position at the IMF.
A key nuance: this ranking is about gross reserves. It does not net out short-term FX liabilities (for example, some swap/forward positions) that can change “usable” buffers under stress. For crisis risk, reserves are best read alongside coverage ratios and external-liability indicators.
Top-10 reserve holders (latest available year in 2022–2024)
Ranked by Total reserves (includes gold) in current US dollars, using 2024 where available (otherwise the latest point in 2022–2024). “Months of imports” uses the World Bank’s reserve-coverage indicator when reported.
| Rank | Country | Reserves (US$) | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Updating… | |||
| Rank | Reserves per capita | Months of imports | YoY change |
|---|---|---|---|
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Methodology (what is counted, what can distort comparisons)
The ranking uses the World Bank’s World Development Indicators series for Total reserves (includes gold, current US$), complemented by population to calculate reserves per capita, and the World Bank’s reserve-coverage series Total reserves in months of imports where available. The reference year is 2024 where reported; if a country has no 2024 value, the latest observation in 2022–2024 is used as a 2025 proxy, and the “YoY change” is computed against the prior year in the same window.
- What “reserves” include: the “includes gold” series reflects a broader official-reserves concept, where reported components can include monetary gold valued at market prices.
- Valuation effects: because the series is in current US$, exchange-rate moves and asset-price changes can shift the headline number even if the portfolio does not change.
- Gross vs. usable buffers: gross reserves can be offset by short-term FX liabilities or operational constraints; this ranking does not adjust for those factors.
- Coverage interpretation: “months of imports” is a useful trade-shock lens, but it is not a complete measure of rollover risk or private-sector FX needs.
Key insights (patterns that repeatedly show up in FX reserves rankings)
Large reserve stocks are concentrated in a small number of economies, reflecting trade scale, exchange-rate regime choices, and financial-center dynamics. Adequacy depends on the shock you are insuring against: import interruptions, sudden stops in capital flows, FX mismatches, or short-term debt rollover.
- Scale vs. adequacy: a large absolute stock can still be “tight” if import needs and short-term external liabilities are huge.
- Per-capita outliers: smaller high-income economies can rank modestly by totals but extremely high per capita.
- What markets watch: coverage (imports, short-term debt) often matters more than the headline US$ number.
What this means for readers (currency stability, prices, and crisis risk)
FX reserves are not a guarantee, but they can reduce the likelihood of abrupt measures such as disorderly devaluations, emergency import controls, or sudden policy tightening under pressure. The practical channel is usually the exchange rate: when buffers are thin relative to external needs, currency swings can feed into import prices, inflation, and interest-rate volatility.
FAQ
Top-100 table (interactive) + scatter chart
Use the controls to switch units (US$ / per-capita / months of imports), filter by region or income group, and sort by value or YoY. The scatter chart below plots reserves vs. current account balance for the subset with both indicators reported in the same window.
| Rank | Country | Value | YoY | Region | Income | Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Notes: “Months of imports” may be missing for some economies. YoY is shown as “n/a” if the prior-year observation is unavailable in 2022–2024.
How to interpret FX reserves (stability, imports, and crisis mechanics)
Foreign exchange reserves matter because they are a policy instrument, not just a scoreboard number. In periods of global stress, reserves can reduce the probability of a “hard landing” by giving the central bank time: to smooth disorderly currency moves, meet FX liquidity needs, and maintain import capacity while external financing becomes expensive or unavailable. But the same reserve stock can mean very different things depending on the country’s external balance sheet and the credibility of its policy framework.
What reserves can (and cannot) do
- Exchange-rate smoothing: selling FX from reserves can reduce short-run volatility and prevent a disorderly overshoot when liquidity dries up.
- Import continuity: reserves help pay for energy, food, medicines, and critical intermediate inputs during a sudden stop.
- Confidence channel: higher reserve coverage can lower perceived tail risk, supporting access to external financing.
- Not a substitute for solvency: reserves do not fix a structurally unsustainable fiscal path or a banking system with large FX mismatches.
Gold, SDRs, and valuation effects: why “headline US$ reserves” move
“Total reserves (includes gold)” can rise or fall due to valuation even with minimal active trading. Gold is priced in global markets; SDR values change with the SDR basket; and FX portfolios are exposed to currency moves (for example, USD strength can mechanically reduce the US$ value of euro- or yen-denominated assets). That is why crisis assessments often combine multiple lenses: level, composition, coverage, and the liability side.
Policy takeaways
For policymakers, the central question is not “How high are reserves?” but “What shock are we insuring against?” Import coverage is useful for trade-disruption scenarios, while short-term debt coverage is more relevant for rollover crises. Economies with high financial openness may rely on swap lines, macroprudential tools, and credible monetary frameworks rather than only stockpiling reserves. Conversely, economies with managed exchange rates often treat reserves as core infrastructure.
- Adequacy is multi-dimensional: imports, short-term debt, broad money, and FX mismatches each matter in different crisis types.
- Opportunity cost is real: very large reserve accumulation can imply sterilization costs and foregone domestic investment.
- Composition and liquidity matter: higher gold shares can increase valuation sensitivity and reduce immediate FX liquidity versus currency assets.
- Gross vs net buffers: some reserve assets can be offset by short-term FX liabilities or be operationally constrained; gross totals should be interpreted with care.
Primary sources used (definitions and data series)
Main ranking metric (gross official reserves in current US dollars; 2024 used as a proxy for 2025 where available).
Reserve-coverage indicator for import needs; available for a subset of economies/years.
Population used to compute reserves per capita.
Balance-of-payments series used for the scatter chart (subset with both reserves and current-account data).
Global dataset on currency shares in officially reported reserves (composition at the aggregate level, not country-level reserve totals).
IMF statistical framework that underpins many external-sector series and reserve reporting practices used across countries.
Country-level releases can provide higher-frequency context (monthly/weekly), composition detail, and notes on encumbrances or valuation changes.
Download the dataset + tables + chart images
One file with everything used in the article: exportable tables (split into ≤4 columns each) and ready-to-use PNG chart images.
- CSV + XLSX tables (Top-10 and Top-20 extracts)
- HTML table snippets (all tables limited to ≤4 columns)
- PNG charts (Top-10 and Top-20 bars)
