Reserves and international liquidity

Introduction

This Economic Paper deals with developments in monetary reserves and international liquidity during the 1970s and the first seven years of the 1980s. It is, in fact, two separate papers.

The first paper (pp. 5 to 43), originally prepared in the winter of 1983-84 for the Group of Ten Deputies' discussions on the international monetary system, covers the period from the end of 1969 to September 1983, while the second paper covers the period 1983-87. The text of the first paper has been left exactly as it was written some four and a half years ago. No attempt has been made to take account of subsequent revisions to many of the data it contains or to take advantage of later developments to modify the opinions expressed in it.

The second paper (pp. 44 to 67) covers the period 1983-87.