diff --git a/Lib/decimal.py b/Lib/decimal.py
index a87a4a5..4d1f7f9 100644
--- a/Lib/decimal.py
+++ b/Lib/decimal.py
@@ -5497,7 +5497,10 @@
             raise ValueError("Alignment conflicts with '0' in "
                              "format specifier: " + format_spec)
     format_dict['fill'] = fill or ' '
-    format_dict['align'] = align or '<'
+    # PEP 3101 originally specified that the default alignment should
+    # be left;  it was later agreed that right-aligned makes more sense
+    # for numeric types.  See http://bugs.python.org/issue6857.
+    format_dict['align'] = align or '>'
 
     # default sign handling: '-' for negative, '' for positive
     if format_dict['sign'] is None: