All the Money in the World
The total volume of all the cash money now in circulation worldwide...
AS of SEPT. 2009, the total amount of physical paper and coin money issued throughout the world was approaching US$4.5 trillion at current exchange rates, writes Mike Hewitt of Dollar Daze.
This map indicates the countries and monetary unions included in this analysis of all the money in the world.
Three of the five monetary unions are clearly seen above. The remaining two are the Institut d'émission d'Outre-Mer (IEOM) – which uses the French Pacific Franc in three member countries in Polynesia – and the East Caribbean Currency Union, which uses the East Caribbean Dollar in eight member countries.
The following graph shows the growth of world money supply since 1971, a year selected for the reason that the last remaining currency to be convertible to gold (the US Dollar) was made inconvertible on August 15, 1971.
Since 1971 the total value of cash money in circulation world wide has been increasing at a rate of 9.09% compounded annually.
The four largest currencies by circulation (now the Euro, US Dollar, Japanese Yen and Chinese Yuan) comprise nearly 75% of all circulating banknotes and coins within the public domain.
| Country/Union |
Currency Code |
Amount (US$bn) |
Percentage of all world money |
| Eurozone |
EUR |
1067.6 |
24.0% |
| United States |
USD |
862.3 |
19.4% |
| Japan |
JPY |
805.4 |
18.1% |
| China (mainland) |
CNY |
539.7 |
12.1% |
| India |
INR |
144.7 |
3.3% |
| Russia |
RUB |
116.4 |
2.6% |
| United Kingdom |
GBP | 89.0 |
2.0% |
| Canada |
CAD |
49.9 |
1.1% |
| Brazil |
BRL |
46.5 |
1.1% |
| Switzerland |
CHF | 42.9 |
1.0% |
| Poland |
PLN |
41.1 |
0.9% |
| Australia | AUD |
38.4 |
0.9% |
| Mexico |
MXN |
35.3 |
0.8% |
| South Korea |
KRW |
27.1 |
0.6% |
| Taiwan | TWD | 26.8 |
0.6% |
| Hong Kong | HKD |
23.8 |
0.5% |
| Others (87) |
– |
490.2 |
11.0% |
| TOTAL | – |
4447.1 | 100.0% |
It is also apparent that the quantities of money are increasing in an accelerating fashion.
In 1990, the total amount of currency in circulation worldwide passed US$1 trillion. Twelve years later, the total amount of all the cash money in the world exceeded US$2 trillion. This doubled again less than six years later in early 2008.
The author is of the opinion that these substantial increases to the amount of circulating currency will ultimately lead to decreased purchasing power.
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