dollar gap
달러 갭
The post-World War II balance-of-payments crisis in which European countries lacked the dollars needed to pay for essential imports from the United States. The war had depleted Europe's gold and dollar reserves while destroying its export capacity, at the same time that the United States held 70% of the world's gold and was running massive trade surpluses. This structural dollar shortage was the direct economic impetus for the Marshall Plan and persisted until the late 1950s, when U.S. balance-of-payments deficits turned the dollar gap into a dollar glut.
Related historical events
Sources
- Wikipedia (EN) Definition, history of the dollar gap (1944–1960), Bretton Woods context, and transition to dollar glut.
- imf.org IMF Money Matters exhibit: 'The Dollar Gap' section documenting gold/dollar scarcity, US holding 70% of world gold reserves by 1947, and Europe's depleted reserves.
- fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bulletin (April 1948): primary source documenting the postwar drain on foreign gold and dollar reserves, the $19 billion export surplus gap, and the depletion of European reserves.
- marshallfoundation.org Marshall Foundation: the balance-of-payments gap as the problem Marshall Planners selected to solve; Europe's dollar shortage from too few exports and too many imports from the US.