Editing Reserve currency (section)

===Euro===
{{Further|International status and usage of the euro}}
The [[euro]] is currently the second most commonly held reserve currency, representing about 20% of international foreign currency reserves. After World War II and the [[Wirtschaftswunder|rebuilding of the German economy]], the [[Deutsche Mark|German mark]] gained the status of the second most important reserve currency after the US dollar. When the euro was [[Introduction of the euro|introduced]] on 1 January 1999, replacing the mark, [[French franc]] and ten other European currencies, it inherited the status of a major reserve currency from the mark. Since then, its contribution to official reserves has risen continually as banks seek to diversify their reserves, and trade in the [[eurozone]] continues to expand.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/wp/2006/wp06153.pdf |title=The Euro's Challenge to the Dollar: Different Views from Economists and Evidence from COFER (Currency Composition of Foreign Exchange Reserves) and Other Data |first=Ewe-Ghee |last=Lim |publisher=[[International Monetary Fund|IMF]] |date=June 2006 }}</ref>

After the [[euro]]'s share of global official foreign exchange reserves approached 25% as of year-end 2006 (vs 65% for the [[U.S. dollar]]; see table above), some experts have predicted that the euro could replace the dollar as the world's primary reserve currency. See [[Alan Greenspan]], 2007;<ref>[https://www.reuters.com/article/bondsNews/idUSL1771147920070917 "Euro could replace dollar as top currency-Greenspan"], Reuters, 7 September 2007</ref>
and Frankel, Chinn (2006) who explained how it could happen by 2020.<ref>{{cite journal |last= Menzie |first= Chinn |author2= Jeffery Frankel |date= January 2006 |title= Will the Euro Eventually Surpass The Dollar As Leading International Reserve Currency? |journal= [[NBER]] |url= http://www.wage.wisc.edu/uploads/Working%20Papers/chinnfrankel_NBER_eurotopcurrency.pdf |access-date= 11 October 2007 |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130825070016/http://www.wage.wisc.edu/uploads/Working%20Papers/chinnfrankel_NBER_eurotopcurrency.pdf |archive-date= 25 August 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/14350/1/MPRA_paper_14350.pdf |title=Aristovnik, Aleksander & Čeč, Tanja, 2010. "Compositional Analysis Of Foreign Currency Reserves In The 1999-2007 Period. The Euro Vs. The Dollar As Leading Reserve Currency," Journal for Economic Forecasting, Vol. 13(1), pages 165-181|publisher=Institute for Economic Forecasting |date=19 July 2010 |access-date=5 July 2010}}</ref>
However, as of 2022 none of this has come to fruition due to the [[European debt crisis]] which engulfed the [[PIGS (economics)|PIIGS countries]] from 2009 to 2014. Instead the euro's stability and future existence was put into doubt, and its share of global reserves was cut to 19% by year-end 2015 (vs 66% for the USD). As of year-end 2020 these figures stand at 21% for EUR and 59% for USD.