United Kingdom | Total reserves (includes gold, current US$)
Total reserves comprise holdings of monetary gold, special drawing rights, reserves of IMF members held by the IMF, and holdings of foreign exchange under the control of monetary authorities. The gold component of these reserves is valued at year-end (December 31) London prices. Data are in current U.S. dollars. Development relevance: The balance of payments records an economy’s transactions with the rest of the world. Balance of payments accounts are divided into two groups: the current account, which records transactions in goods, services, primary income, and secondary income, and the capital and financial account, which records capital transfers, acquisition or disposal of nonproduced, nonfinancial assets, and transactions in financial assets and liabilities. The current account balance is one of the most analytically useful indicators of an external imbalance. A primary purpose of the balance of payments accounts is to indicate the need to adjust an external imbalance. Where to draw the line for analytical purposes requires a judgment concerning the imbalance that best indicates the need for adjustment. There are a number of definitions in common use for this and related analytical purposes. The trade balance is the difference between exports and imports of goods. From an analytical view it is arbitrary to distinguish goods from services. For example, a unit of foreign exchange earned by a freight company strengthens the balance of payments to the same extent as the foreign exchange earned by a goods exporter. Even so, the trade balance is useful because it is often the most timely indicator of trends in the current account balance. Customs authorities are typically able to provide data on trade in goods long before data on trade in services are available. Limitations and exceptions: Discrepancies may arise in the balance of payments because there is no single source for balance of payments data and therefore no way to ensure that the data are fully consistent. Sources include customs data, monetary accounts of the banking system, external debt records, information provided by enterprises, surveys to estimate service transactions, and foreign exchange records. Differences in collection methods - such as in timing, definitions of residence and ownership, and the exchange rate used to value transactions - contribute to net errors and omissions. In addition, smuggling and other illegal or quasi-legal transactions may be unrecorded or misrecorded. Statistical concept and methodology: The balance of payments (BoP) is a double-entry accounting system that shows all flows of goods and services into and out of an economy; all transfers that are the counterpart of real resources or financial claims provided to or by the rest of the world without a quid pro quo, such as donations and grants; and all changes in residents' claims on and liabilities to nonresidents that arise from economic transactions. All transactions are recorded twice - once as a credit and once as a debit. In principle the net balance should be zero, but in practice the accounts often do not balance, requiring inclusion of a balancing item, net errors and omissions.
Publisher
The World Bank
Origin
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Records
63
Source
United Kingdom | Total reserves (includes gold, current US$)
3767016800.5031 1960
3327714600.0156 1961
3313161730.518 1962
3153679120.5051 1963
2322326240.0156 1964
3011764240.0156 1965
3109538540.0156 1966
2702371600 1967
2712427900.0156 1968
2535411000.0156 1969
2918294770.2657 1970
8956892354.1658 1971
6214060489.4836 1972
7946929575.5968 1973
9959015733.3056 1974
7547578527.0781 1975
6208263109.9422 1976
23778086730.672 1977
21184736971.547 1978
29084847008.512 1979
31755311531.29 1980
22802299491.445 1981
21083020684.692 1982
18593267595.715 1983
15306822447.563 1984
19081735746.924 1985
25853390487.558 1986
50917928958.405 1987
51899597618.132 1988
42381854893.737 1989
43145747847.306 1990
48572195808.563 1991
42844142573.852 1992
43982206193.943 1993
48079032624.077 1994
49144184297.856 1995
46700021359.84 1996
37662299516.278 1997
38829795838.121 1998
46188288221.517 1999
50939389681.351 2000
47417467709.443 2001
54959281998.98 2002
56349681040.08 2003
62138194998.752 2004
59135108205.007 2005
63823577313.643 2006
77715465906.566 2007
64785716443.251 2008
79453490100.247 2009
98025460114.425 2010
109733899591.29 2011
117156976864.59 2012
118750193779.68 2013
124487425221.3 2014
148109299505.9 2015
134931850848.28 2016
150857673778.94 2017
172657749536.32 2018
173569199262.77 2019
180054101389.55 2020
194181397315.03 2021
176409966646.61 2022
United Kingdom | Total reserves (includes gold, current US$)
Total reserves comprise holdings of monetary gold, special drawing rights, reserves of IMF members held by the IMF, and holdings of foreign exchange under the control of monetary authorities. The gold component of these reserves is valued at year-end (December 31) London prices. Data are in current U.S. dollars. Development relevance: The balance of payments records an economy’s transactions with the rest of the world. Balance of payments accounts are divided into two groups: the current account, which records transactions in goods, services, primary income, and secondary income, and the capital and financial account, which records capital transfers, acquisition or disposal of nonproduced, nonfinancial assets, and transactions in financial assets and liabilities. The current account balance is one of the most analytically useful indicators of an external imbalance. A primary purpose of the balance of payments accounts is to indicate the need to adjust an external imbalance. Where to draw the line for analytical purposes requires a judgment concerning the imbalance that best indicates the need for adjustment. There are a number of definitions in common use for this and related analytical purposes. The trade balance is the difference between exports and imports of goods. From an analytical view it is arbitrary to distinguish goods from services. For example, a unit of foreign exchange earned by a freight company strengthens the balance of payments to the same extent as the foreign exchange earned by a goods exporter. Even so, the trade balance is useful because it is often the most timely indicator of trends in the current account balance. Customs authorities are typically able to provide data on trade in goods long before data on trade in services are available. Limitations and exceptions: Discrepancies may arise in the balance of payments because there is no single source for balance of payments data and therefore no way to ensure that the data are fully consistent. Sources include customs data, monetary accounts of the banking system, external debt records, information provided by enterprises, surveys to estimate service transactions, and foreign exchange records. Differences in collection methods - such as in timing, definitions of residence and ownership, and the exchange rate used to value transactions - contribute to net errors and omissions. In addition, smuggling and other illegal or quasi-legal transactions may be unrecorded or misrecorded. Statistical concept and methodology: The balance of payments (BoP) is a double-entry accounting system that shows all flows of goods and services into and out of an economy; all transfers that are the counterpart of real resources or financial claims provided to or by the rest of the world without a quid pro quo, such as donations and grants; and all changes in residents' claims on and liabilities to nonresidents that arise from economic transactions. All transactions are recorded twice - once as a credit and once as a debit. In principle the net balance should be zero, but in practice the accounts often do not balance, requiring inclusion of a balancing item, net errors and omissions.
Publisher
The World Bank
Origin
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Records
63
Source