Central banks around the world are searching for ways to end their reliance on the US dollar’s world reserve status, leading economies are now diversifying their foreign exchange reserves and allocating to gold at an unprecedented rate, according to Ruchir Sharma, Chairman of Rockefeller International and former Morgan Stanley executive. Sharma warns that the US may have overplayed its hand when it launched sanctions against Russia during its conflict with Ukraine, inadvertently sending a message to other countries that they could also face consequences for being on the wrong side of a conflict.
In an interview with France 24, Sharma stated that the US dollar’s supremacy has become an issue of concern to many countries, and as a result, they are seeking ways to transact with each other without using the dollar. For instance, Saudi Arabia and China are discussing ways to trade in oil without using the dollar as a medium of transaction. India is having a similar discussion with the UAE, exploring how to eliminate the dollar as a denominator.
Sharma pointed out that most central banks hold foreign exchange reserves in other currencies, predominantly the US dollar, but they have been diversifying over the past year and buying gold at an extraordinary rate. According to him, the central bank holdings of gold are increasing at a pace never seen in history, and central banks from Brazil, India, China, and Turkey are buying gold in a significant way. Instead of holding their foreign exchange reserves in the US dollar, they are increasingly holding it in gold, which has led to a sharp surge in the price of gold over the past few months
Sharma believes that many commentators and policymakers in the US believe that all other nations have no alternative but to hold the US dollar, and the Chinese currency is not fit to be held, while the Euro has its own problems. However, he warns that such a mentality is “naive” given how reliant the US is on the dollar’s supremacy. Instead of a legitimate call to action, Sharma says he’s only seeing “a lot of complacency and arrogance.”
In conclusion, the global movement to end reliance on the US dollar is already underway, with central banks buying gold in a very big way. Leading economies are diversifying their foreign exchange reserves and transacting with each other without using the dollar. According to Ruchir Sharma, this trend is likely to continue, and the US may need to rethink its approach to economic sanctions and geopolitical conflict. The world is changing, and the US dollar’s dominance as the world’s reserve currency may be coming to an end.
