WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The US dollar is overvalued because it is considered a safe-haven currency and its value has also been boosted by the decline in oil prices, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde said in a briefing on Wednesday.
"That is a factor of probably of flight to safety, the safe-haven factor that always applies to the US dollar in times of uncertainty, and certainly the variation in the price of oil is often correlated with an appreciation of the dollar when the price of the barrel goes down," Lagarde stated.
Earlier in the day, the IMF issued a report stating that the US dollar has been overvalued by 10 to 20 percent.
On Tuesday, US Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said an exit by the United Kingdom from the European Union, also known as Brexit, could force financial markets to switch to safety flows in the US dollar or other alternative currencies, while increasing their value.
