Less dollars, more gold: Russia continues adding to its international reserves

The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) reported on Thursday that the nation’s gold and foreign exchange reserves reached $528.4 billion, rising by $1.3 billion in one week.

The amount in international reserves has been above the central bank’s target level of half-a-trillion dollars for 11 consecutive weeks. The regulator explained that the reserves rose thanks to positive revaluation and the purchases of foreign currency within the framework of the budget rule.

The international reserves are comprised of highly-liquid foreign assets at the disposal of the Central Bank and the Russian government, including foreign currencies, monetary gold, and Special Drawing Right (SDR) assets.

Russia has been boosting its international holdings lately with Fitch Ratings forecasting that the figure will keep rising and will reach $591 billion by 2021. At the same time Moscow wants to decrease the economy’s reliance on the US dollar. For this purpose, the central bank has been decreasing its share of the greenback and stockpiling gold bullion.

Russian gold reserves alone, which account for 19.6 percent of the total national reserves, rose by 9 tons in July bringing Russia’s stockpile to a total of 2,217.68 tons, valued at $101.923 billion. Last year, Russia was recognized as the world’s largest purchaser of gold, after it added 275 tons to its coffers, the largest amount ever purchased in a single year, according to the World Gold Council.

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