Source: China Daily

03-24-2009 08:10

China's central bank chief on Monday proposed a sweeping overhaul of the global monetary system, outlining how the dollar could eventually be replaced as the world's main reserve currency by the Special Drawing Right (SDR).

The SDR is an international reserve asset created by the International Monetary Fund in 1969 that has the potential to act as a super-sovereign reserve currency, Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People's Bank of China, said in remarks published on Monday on the bank's website, www.pbc.gov.cn.

"The role of the SDR has not been put into full play due to limitations on its allocation and the scope of its uses. However, it serves as the light in the tunnel for the reform of the international monetary system," Zhou said.

Zhou did not refer directly to the dollar.

But his speech, issued in English as well as Chinese, spells out in detail China's dissatisfaction with the primacy of the US currency, which Zhou says has led to increasingly frequent international financial crises since the collapse of the Bretton Woods system of fixed but adjustable exchange rates in 1971.

"The price is becoming increasingly high, not only for the users, but also for the issuers of the reserve currencies. Although crisis may not necessarily be an intended result of the issuing authorities, it is an inevitable outcome of the institutional flaws," Zhou said.

"The desirable goal of reforming the international monetary system, therefore, is to create an international reserve currency that is disconnected from individual nations and is able to remain stable in the long run, thus removing the inherent deficiencies caused by using credit-based national currencies," he added.