Dollar Shortage

What Is a Dollar Shortage?

A dollar shortage occurs when a country lacks a sufficient supply of U.S. dollars (USD) to manage its international trade effectively. This happens when a country has to pay out more USD for its imports than the USD it receives from its exports.

Understanding a Dollar Shortage

Dollar shortages impact global trade because as the currency of the world’s largest economy, the USD acts as a peg for the value of other currencies. Even when two countries other than the United States engage in foreign trade, the status of the dollar as a reserve currency, with a reputation for stability, makes it widely used for pricing assets. For example, oil is typically priced in USD, even if two countries engaged in an import/export oil deal don't use the USD as their domestic currency.

A reserve currency is a large quantity of currency maintained by central banks and other major financial institutions to be used for investments, transactions, international debt obligations, or to influence their domestic exchange rate.  Because the USD is the world’s most widely traded currency, many nations must hold assets in dollars to maintain a steadily growing economy and to trade effectively with other countries that use the currency. 

USD is accumulated by a country when its balance of payments (BOP) shows it receives more dollars for exported goods compared to dollars spent on goods the nation imports. These countries are known as net exporters.

Countries are known as net importers when they do not accumulate sufficient dollars through their BOP. When the value of imported products and services is higher than the cost of those exported, a nation will be a net importer. If a dollar shortage becomes too severe, a country may ask for assistance from other countries or international organizations to maintain liquidity and improve its economy.

The term dollar shortage was coined after World War II when the world’s economies were struggling to recover, yet stable currencies were in short supply. Part of the U.S.-sponsored Marshall Plan that began just after the war helped European countries rebuild their economies by providing enough USD to relieve that shortage.

Although the global economy today is not nearly as reliant on the United States for assistance, international organizations such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) may assist nations facing dollar shortages.

Dollar Shortage Examples

Shortages of USD often begin when countries become more isolated from others, perhaps because of sanctions by other nations. These and other political issues can impact international trade and reduce demand for exported goods in exchange for dollars.

In 2017, Qatar suffered a dollar shortage when other Arab nations accused Qatari banks of supporting blacklisted terrorist groups. Although the country had already accumulated substantial financial reserves, it was forced to access more than $30 billion of those reserves to compensate for a net outflow of USD.

In another incident, in late 2017 into early 2018, a shortage of dollars in Sudan caused that nation’s currency to weaken, which resulted in rapidly climbing prices. Bread prices doubled in a week, causing protests and riots in a country whose economy was already subject to disruption caused in part by new economic reform measures.

At the start of 2019, the situation hadn't improved, with the Sudanese pound (SDP) falling to record lows as people were willing to spend more and more SDP in order to buy the more stable USD.