External financial position and international reserve level: international comparisons

Abstract EN

The paper focuses on the relationship between international reserves and external financial position.

It aims to determine whether the more or less significant level of a country's reserves necessarily implies its external financial position as a net lender (creditor) or a net borrower (debtor).

Firstly, the paper gives a theoretical lecture to the problem and deduces that the stock of reserves does not imply a particular external position (as measured by Net International Investment Position – NIIP), and that there are four possible combinations between the two variables.

Finally, an empirical study analyzes the case of four countries at different stages of economic development and corresponding to the four theoretical combinations, namely: Spain, India, Belgium, and Algeria.