Ireland · Total Reserves incl. Gold (IMF)

## What this measures

Official reserve assets held by Ireland's monetary authorities: foreign exchange, gold at market prices, SDRs and the reserve position in the IMF, in US dollars billions at the end of each month.

## Why it matters

Reserves are a country's buffer against a run on its currency or a sudden stop in foreign funding. A fast drop means the central bank is spending reserves to defend the exchange rate.

## How to read it

A level in US dollars. It moves with valuation (the dollar, gold prices) as well as with intervention, so compare a fall with the exchange rate before reading it as selling.

## What it does not say

Some central banks hold reserves through other state entities or forward positions that this measure leaves out.

## Source

International Monetary Fund, International Financial Statistics, International Liquidity (IL), read from the IMF data API (api.imf.org, dataflow IMF.STA/IL). https://data.imf.org/ Attribution: Source: International Monetary Fund. Transformations by Palanor where stated. Transformation by Palanor: the IMF publishes US dollars; Palanor divides by one billion. IMF data is available free of charge from the IMF. Use follows the IMF Copyright and Usage terms, Special Terms for Statistical Data (imf.org/en/About/copyright-and-terms).