New York

THE decade-long surge in foreign-currency reserves held by the world's central banks is coming to an end.

Global reserves declined to US$11.6 trillion in March from a record US$12.03 trillion in August 2014, halting a fivefold increase that began in 2004, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. While the drop may be overstated because the strengthening dollar reduced the value of other reserve currencies such as the euro, it still underlines a shift after central banks - with most of them located in developing nations such as China and Russia - added an average US$824 billion to reserves each year over the past decade.