Could Trump as president accelerate de-dollarisation?

e-dollarisation, or the ongoing efforts by many (if not most) countries to reduce dependence on the United States (US) dollar, is not a new phenomenon.

- Jamal Mecklai

At various points in the past when US government debt threatened to explode, there would be talk of de-dollarisation and efforts to find a substitute – all to no avail. However, the dollar's share of global reserves has been volatile, falling from nearly 80% in 1970 to below 58% in 1980 and further to an all-time low of 47% in 1990. It rose to 71% in 1999 before falling again, to about 58-59% in 2020.

With the birth of the euro in 1999, there was a period when it was thought that, perhaps, this could provide a reasonable avenue of diversification for central banks, both from an economic and geopolitical perspective. However, it is clear that the euro is but a shadow of what was expected.

Nonetheless, the effort to find an alternative to dollar hegemony continues, accelerating after the G7, under US direction, sanctioned Russia after it invaded Ukraine, by cutting it off from SWIFT, the global settlement system.