That change does not reflect a selling of dollars, the monetary fund reports. Rather, it captures how the dollar has fallen in value against many currencies, making the total value of dollars a smaller percentage of all money. “It hasn’t been an active diversification,” said John Lipsky, first deputy managing director at the fund. “Central bankers tend to be the most conservative investors. Whatever they do is going to be done with exceeding caution.”

Now, however, people in international financial circles detect a subtle shifting of the ground in confidence about the dollar. A few years ago, the suggestion that another currency could rival the dollar would have been ridiculed. Today, some economists say the dollar could begin surrendering some of the advantages of dominance to the euro over the next decade or two. Longer term, the dollar could find itself eclipsed by China’s yuan as the primary money in usage in the world.

For Americans, losing that status could be painful, sending interest rates higher and raising the costs of buying homes and cars. A country that has been operating with essentially unlimited credit might have learn to live within a budget.

But many economists say that chatter about the demise of the dollar is overblown. The United States, despite its problems, has been a remarkably solid place to put money, making it singularly able to attract savings, they point out. The dollar is likely to continue to shed value, and the American economy will grow far slower than India’s and China’s, they acknowledge. Yet the dollar, they argue, remains one of the few entities that seem to have fundamental staying power in an age of risk and obsolescence. The size of the United States military alone reinforces confidence that America will endure to honor its debts.

Yes, foreigners have been lending alarming amounts of money to Americans, who have spent extravagantly in excess of their means, economists say. One day, balance will be restored in line with the basic laws of economics  perhaps chaotically, and probably via a substantial fall in the dollar’s value.

But “one day” could well get pushed into the future for a long time to come, for the simple reason that codependence governs the global economy: The current flows of capital lubricate world commerce, giving the American consumer the wherewithal to keep buying; those purchases, in turn, generate business and employment from Asia to Latin America.

When Americans head to the mall, backed by foreign largesse, they drive there burning gasoline made from oil pumped abroad, notably the Middle East. They drive home carrying electronics and clothing churned out in Chinese and Japanese factories. Making these goods absorbs commodities  energy from Australia and Africa; cotton from Texas and California; iron ore from Brazil and India.