Conclusion

The first post-crisis ‘Triennial Survey’ of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS 2010) shows that foreign exchange markets continue to proliferate. In the period from 2004 to 2007, the BIS counted an unprecedented growth of 72 per cent in average daily turnover; yet three years later, despite financial and economic crises, transactions have again increased by 20 per cent. If at all, this growth is only very loosely connected to developments in the global economy and on other financial markets; in a recent survey by the Norwegian central bank, the authors note:

[T]he market [for spot and forward foreign exchange] is 36 times larger than the combined exports and imports for the world’s 35 largest economies, 16 times their combined GDP, and roughly 10 times exchange-traded equity turnover…. Between 1998 and 2010 turnover in the FX market grew by over 250 percent. The associated 8.4 percent average annual growth rate far exceeds the contemporary 5.5 percent annual expansion of global real GDP.

(King et al. 2011: 3)