E questa notizia!!!
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UPDATE 1-Bank of Italy shifted dlr reserves to pounds-paper
Thu Aug 3, 2006 12:42am ET
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TOKYO, Aug 3 (Reuters) - Italy's central bank has switched a quarter of its reserves into the British pound and slashed holdings of the U.S. dollar, Britain's Telegraph newspaper reported in its online edition on Thursday, citing the central bank's half-year report.
In what the paper called the most dramatic move to date by a G7 country to slash exposure to the dollar, the Bank of Italy cut the share of its dollar reserves to 63 percent from 84 percent and also trimmed reserves in the Japanese yen, while holdings of sterling rose to 24 percent from zero in 2004, it said.
The report cited an Italian official as saying the Bank of Italy was taking action in advance of an expected slide in the dollar as the Federal Reserve prepares to end a two-year credit tightening campaign and investors may focus again on the U.S. current account deficit.
The Bank of Italy's official reserves totalled 58.4 billion euros ($74.5 billion) as of the end of June.
Worries about central banks diversifying their reserves away from the dollar have dogged the U.S. currency in the past few years, especially as Asian central banks built up massive stockpiles, mainly by buying dollars to prevent their domestic currencies from strengthening.
China's reserves have swelled by more than $120 billion in the first six months of the year to $941.1 billion, the world's biggest, as Beijing's tight control of the yuan forces it to buy dollars coming in from trade surpluses and investment.
Countries such as the United Arab Emirates and Russia have said they are shifting out of dollars and into other currencies like the euro.
Through March this year, global central bank reserves totalled $4.347 trillion, more than doubling in just two years, according to data from the International Monetary Fund
Sixty-six percent of allocated reserves were in dollars and 25 percent in euros, compared with 71 percent and 14 percent respectively when the single European currency was launched in 1999.
The IMF data also showed the pound overtaking the yen to be the world's third-biggest reserve currency.
Some traders said the report may have helped sterling gain briefly in Asia trade. The pound traded at $1.8755 <GBP> at 0438 GMT, down slightly on the day and pulling away from a two-month high of $1.8798 struck on Wednesday.
Last year the pound fell 10 percent against the dollar after having surged some 30 percent in a three-year rally through 2004.
