The financial crisis has pushed the issue of the dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency to the forefront of the market’s agenda. And as ultra-loose US fiscal and monetary policies have weighed on its value, so calls for an alternative to the US currency as the world’s numeraire have increased.

China has been in the vanguard, with Zhou Xiaochuan, central bank governor, calling for the creation of a new super-sovereign currency. Zhou said in March that the role could be filled by the so-called special drawing right, a basket of currencies used as a unit of account by the International Monetary Fund.