The dollar will not be able to continue its status as the global reserve currency, says economist Nouriel Roubini.

The dollar will lose its status because of the emerging markets in the global economy, Roubini said at a Reuters Investment Outlook Summit in New York.

The emerging markets will create a "fundamental change," he said, as they continue to grow. He also believes that China's economy will surpass the United Statses.

"Over time, the willingness of the U.S. creditors to finance (U.S. spending) and buy dollar reserves is going to be reduced," Roubini said.

"People are getting nervous rightly about us devaluing or inflating our way out of the debt problem and causing real losses on the holdings of those assets."

However, the dollar will not lose its status anytime soon, said Roubini, who is chairman of New York-based research firm RGE Monitor.

"Declines of major reserve currencies do not occur overnight. It's a slow process that takes decades," he said. "This century could be the Asian or Chinese century, but that will occur over time."

Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin deemed the dollar to be in “good shape,” Bloomberg reported.

“It’s too early to speak of an alternative,” Kudrin said in an interview two days ago in Lecce, Italy.

“At this point there’s no alternative to the U.S. dollar in terms of deep liquid markets and trading 24-7 globally,” Michael Woolfolk, senior currency strategist at the Bank of New York Mellon in New York, told the news wire in a telephone interview.

“Nothing even comes close to the dollar in terms of reserve status.”