Although individual countries within the euro area have non-negligible surpluses or deficits, the area as a whole runs an approximate balance and it has been able to absorb the impact of a dollar depreciation of 45 percent vis-à-vis the euro between early 2002 and mid-2008, only partially  4  For example, if the dollar reserves were simply transferred to the IMF and the deposits acquired by reserve holders were denominated in SDR, the exchange risk would be shifted to all IMF members according to their quotas.
If, however, the resulting IMF claim vis-à-vis the United States were also denominated in SDR, the US would then bear the risk (effectively giving an SDR guarantee on its dollar liabilities). The risk sharing problem is not regarded by most authors as insuperable. See Alessandrini and Fratianni (2009) and Kenen (2010).