Central bank reserves during the Bretton Woods period: new data from France, the UK and Switzerland
Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Alain Naef
Version: View help for Version V1
| Name | File Type | Size | Last Modified |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet | 3.7 MB | 01/17/2021 09:17:PM |
|
|
application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet | 148.5 KB | 01/17/2021 09:09:PM |
Project Citation:
Naef, Alain. Central bank reserves during the Bretton Woods period: new data from France, the UK and Switzerland. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2021-01-18. https://doi.org/10.3886/E130681V1
Project Description
Summary:
View help for Summary
This project presents new daily data on central bank reserves during the
Bretton Woods period. It provides daily data for the Bank of
France, Bank of England and Swiss National Bank directly from these central
bank’s archives.
Scope of Project
Geographic Coverage:
View help for Geographic Coverage
United Kingdom,
France,
Switzerland
Time Period(s):
View help for Time Period(s)
1944 – 1972
Collection Notes:
View help for Collection Notes
The data on
Bank of England reserves comes from the Exchange Equalization Account (EEA)
ledgers. The EEA is the British government’s official reserve account. It has the
particularity that while it is managed by the Bank of England, it belongs to the Treasury and hence the
government. Data span 1947 to 1971. The data are collected directly from the
Ledgers of the EEA (Bank of England archives, reference 2A141/1, ledgers 1 to 17).
The data for
the Swiss National Bank
come from the statistics office and offer
daily data for all the country’s reserves. They do not come from directly from
ledgers (as is the case for the two other central banks analysed here), but
from sources compiled by the Swiss National Bank’s statistical office. The data
span from 1942 to 1967 when the statistical office no longer register the data.
They are available in manuscript files at the Swiss National Bank under reference 9.1/9106 Statistics.
The data from
the Bank of France are data for the Fond de Stabilisation des Changes
(FSC). Just like for the British EEA, the FSC was specially put in place for
reserve management. And because of this special legal structure, some of the
data in the account is more difficult to interpret. The data come from ledgers and
are extremely granular. They show the holdings of the FSC with private
commercial banks in the UK and the US among other countries as well as account
with other central banks. They also show negative values at time
which would need to be investigated further. They span 1949 to 1970. All the
data were copied at the currency in which they were reported, and for
comparability, they would have to be converted into USD or French francs. While
the data from the Bank of England and Swiss National Bank can be used “as is”
in further analysis, this data would need further processing and research.
Because of this
complexity, data have only been copied monthly to give an overview, but at the
archive of the Bank of France, reserves are available at daily frequency for
interested researchers (Archives of the Bank of France, reference 1463200401-70
to 1463200401100, “Fond de stabilisation des changes livres de comptes”).
Related Publications
Published Versions
Report a Problem
Found a serious problem with the data, such as disclosure risk or copyrighted content? Let us know.
This material is distributed exactly as it arrived from the data depositor. ICPSR has not checked or processed this material. Users should consult the investigator(s) if further information is desired.