MUMBAI: Even as China tries to promote the Yuan as an international currency, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has joined the effort of chipping away at the dollar's pre-eminent position as the world's currency. The central bank on Monday called for inclusion of emerging market currencies as alternative reserve currencies to the dollar.

Delivering the 46th A D Shroff Memorial Lecture in Mumbai on Tuesday, RBI governor D Subbarao said that the dollar's monopoly as a reserve currency had resulted in many countries facing a liquidity problem as foreign creditors and foreign investors turned risk averse. "Paradoxically, even as the US economy was in a downturn, and its central bank resorted to extraordinary quantitative easing, the dollar strengthened as a result of flight to safety," Subbarao said.

The governor pointed out that one alternative was to have a menu of reserve currencies. "But this cannot happen by fiat. To be a serious contender as an alternative, a currency has to fulfill some exacting criteria. It has to be fully convertible and its exchange rate should be determined by market fundamentals; It should acquire a significant share in world trade; The currency issuing country should have liquid, open and large financial markets and also the policy credibility to inspire the confidence of potential investors. In short, the 'exorbitant privilege' of a reserve currency comes with an 'exorbitant responsibility'," he said.

According to the governor, another option of developing special drawing rights (SDRs) - an overdraft facility that countries have with the International Monetary Fund to get credit denominated in dollars, pounds, euro or the yen - is not a feasible option as SDRs would have to be automatically acceptable as a medium of payment in cross-border transactions, it should be freely tradeable and its price has to be determined by forces of demand and supply.