SDR holdings linked to IMF reserve position
Comparing Reserve position in the IMF, SDR, per capita with SDRs holdings, US dollar, per capita across 190 countries, 2016–2025.
- Rank correlation
- +0.80
- Holding size constant
- +0.73
- Countries compared
- 190
- Period
- 2016–2025
What might link these
A country's SDR holdings and its reserve position in the IMF might be connected through international trade and financial stability. A careful reader should consider that economic development could be a confounder. The relationship could be driven by countries' overall economic health.
Why this is not proof of anything
This is a correlation across countries, not an experiment. It cannot show that either indicator causes the other, and both may simply follow a third thing. This correlation might mislead because it does not account for other factors influencing international reserve management, such as political relationships or global economic trends.
The second figure above repeats the measurement with national population and income held constant. It is the more conservative number: a relationship that largely disappears there was mostly telling you that larger, richer countries have more of most things.
How this was measured
Both indicators were ranked across every country reporting each, and the two rankings compared — ranks rather than raw values, because a handful of very large countries can otherwise manufacture a relationship on their own. The calculation is arithmetic over figures already published on this site; the commentary above is drafted from the two indicator names and the resulting coefficients.