Loonie and Aussie dollar gaining reserve currency status

The Australian and Canadian dollars are becoming reserve currencies for central bankers seeking alternatives to deteriorating government credit quality in Europe, the U.S. and Japan.

“They’ll gain an increasing place in reserves because of diversification,” European Central Bank governing council member Christian Noyer said in a June 16 interview with Bloomberg News in Paris.

Russia may add the Australian and Canadian dollars to its international reserves for the first time after fluctuations in the U.S. currency and euro, Alexei Ulyukayev, the first deputy chairman of the nation’s central bank, said in an interview in Moscow on June 15. The International Monetary Fund may add the Aussie and loonie to a basket of currencies it uses in transactions, strategists at UBS AG, the world’s second-largest foreign-exchange trader, predict. (more)