Two Measures of Reserves: Why Are They Different?

Though these series have similardescriptions, their growth rates often differ substantially, especially over periods as short as a month (table 1). For instance, in the three years ending in December 1982, the difference between monthly growth rates of the two reserves series (absolute value) averaged 8.6 percentage points. Average differences in growth rates were much smaller over periods longer than a month (chart 1). Absolute value ofdifferences inquarterly growth rates, for example, averaged 3.2 percentage points over the years 1980—82, while the differences in growth rates over four-quarter periods averaged 1.3 percentage points.