Head of International Monetary Fund Proposes New Global Reserve Currency

"That day has not yet come, but I think it is intellectually healthy to explore these kinds of ideas now," Strauss-Kahn said in a speech on the future mandate of the international organization..

The asset could be similar to but distinctly different from the IMF's special drawing rights, or SDRs, the accounting unit that countries use to hold funds within the IMF. It is based on a basket of major currencies.

Additional alternative currencies to the dollar "would limit the extent to which the international monetary system as a whole depends on the policies and conditions of a single, albeit dominant, country," Strauss-Kahn explained.

A number of countries, including China and Russia, have urged an alternative reserve currency to the dollar and have suggested using the IMF's internal accounting unit.