Giant FX market now $4 trillion gorilla
Global foreign exchange has always been one of the biggest markets in the world but its exponential growth keeps accelerating. The triennial survey by the Bank for International Settlements shows global foreign exchange market turnover leapt 20 percent to $4 trillion, compared with $3.3 trillion three years ago.
The increase in turnover was driven by growth in spot transactions, which represent 37 percent of FX market turnover. Turnover was driven by trading activity by “other financial institutions” — a category that includes hedge funds, pension funds and central banks, extending a trend seen in the past several years where buyside firms are increasingly trading currencies themselves, via prime brokerage, rather than turning to interbank dealers.
Also notably, emerging market currencies are gradually increasing their share in the marketplace. Turnover of the Russian rouble has increased its share in total turnover to 0.9 percent of 200 percent (FX is double counted as transaction involves two currencies), up from 0.7 percent three years ago, while the Brazilian real rose to 0.7 percent from 0.4 percent. The Indian rupee’s share rose to 0.9 percent from 0.7 percent. The dollar keeps its dominance, although off its 2001 peak, with its share standing at 84.9 percent.
London-Basel express
Having wrapped up the two-day get-together in London, G20 central bankers moved down to the Swiss city of Basel (I counted central bank governors and officials from at least 9 countries onboard the same flight) to discuss more about the global economy for a two-day meeting.
The focus here again is the global economic recovery, which seems to be gathering momentum, and the timing of exit policy — which is essential in the future to avoid inflationary pressure.
The mood is decidedly more positive this time than the last time they met in Basel, where they warned that unprecedented attempts to stimulate economic may fail to bring a sustainable recovery.
G10 chairman and ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet will give a briefing on Monday.
Trichet has recently been sounding as if he expects a double-dip recession, as our European affairs columnist Paul Taylor suggests here.
I quote the BIS report page 7: “Global foreign exchange market turnover was 20% higher in April 2010 than in April 2007, with average daily turnover of $4.0 trillion compared to $3.3 trillion. The increase was driven by the 48% growth in turnover of spot transactions, which represent 37% of foreign exchange market turnover. Spot turnover rose to $1.5 trillion in April 2010 from $1.0 trillion in April 2007.”