Countries Only Accumulate Foreign Reserves Because They Decide To

A Washington Post article on a report by the IMF's Independent Evaluation Office criticizing political influence by the United States on the Fund's policy may have misled readers on how countries accumulate foreign exchange reserves. The article told readers:

"A steady rise in foreign reserves — a country’s holdings of dollars, yen or other major world currencies — can be the result of large trade surpluses. But it can also stem from an undervalued exchange rate, something that the United Sta...