主题：关于外汇储备的积极管理 -- 阿尔法

ADB chief economist urges more active forex reserve investment

Asian governments and central banks should invest their foreign reserves more actively in financial markets so they can use the returns to develop their economies and reduce poverty, the Asian Development Bank's chief economist says.

Active investment management of reserves is essential in the years ahead

One aspect of the management of foreign exchange reserves that lies with the RBI is the management of reserves as though they are an investible pool of assets. In such a framework, the central bank has to actively manage the risk of foreign exchange rate movement eroding the value of the underlying reserves. For that, the bank needs to form a view on the outlook for various currencies in the years ahead as well as currency substitutes such as gold and other metals and act upon it. In doing so, the RBI would be emulating the practices of investment/fund managers to manage the exchange reserves pool.

International reserve diversification and disclosure

Today, probably less than half of central banks' US dollar reserves are invested in US Treasuries (see table 2). These holdings have declined in favour of investments in other US sovereign, semi-sovereign and agency paper, as well as US private (mortgage and corporate) bonds. US corporate equities also attract a surprisingly large amount of official investment, reflecting placements by central bank and other public long-term investment funds and central bank in-house pension funds. In addition, central bank reserve managers have extended the duration of their portfolios, and now hold most of their dollars in long-term instruments.