Emerging-Market Currencies Fall 30% in Reserves, Citigroup Says

Global central banks sold 30 percent of their holdings in emerging-market currencies from foreign reserves in the second quarter as the Brazilian real to the Indian rupee tumbled, according to Citigroup Inc.

Reserve managers divested as much as $20 billion in their holdings in developing-nation currencies, strategist Steven Englander wrote yesterday in a research note to clients, citing data from the International Monetary Fund’s quarterly reserves report. The central banks may have sold a similar amount from the reserves in the third quarter, Englander wrote.