
The United  Nations called on Tuesday for a new global reserve  currency to end dollar supremacy which has allowed the United  States the "privilege" of building a huge trade  deficit.
 "Important progress in managing imbalances can be made by reducing the  reserve currency country?s 'privilege' to run external deficits in order to  provide international liquidity," UN undersecretary-general for economic and social affairs, Sha Zukang, said. Speaking at the annual meetings of the International  Monetary Fund and World Bank in Istanbul, he  said: "It is timely to emphasise that such a system also creates a more  equitable method of sharing the seigniorage derived from providing global  liquidity." He said: "Greater use of a truly global reserve currency, such as the IMF?s special drawing  rights (SDRs), enables the seigniorage gained to be deployed for development  purposes," he said. The SDRs are the asset used in IMF transactions and are based on a basket of  four currencies -- the dollar, euro, yen and pound -- which is calculated daily. China had called in March for a new dominant world reserve currency instead  of the dollar, in a system within the framework of the Washington-based IMF.