Emerging market countries’ foreign exchange reserves tumbled by $550bn in the nine months to the end of March, figures released on Tuesday by the International Monetary Fund showed.
EM reserves now stand at just $7,505bn, a fall of $227bn during the first three months of the year. This represents an acceleration in their rate of decline, having fallen by $179bn in the last three months of 2014 and by $147bn in the third quarter of last year, after peaking at $8,058bn in June 2014.
The data have fed into a narrative that emerging market countries are running down their reserves in order to prop up their currencies against a resurgent US dollar.