Russia slashes dollar & euro from reserves in favor of gold & yuan

The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) said in its annual report that in 2020 it reduced the share of the euro, the dollar and the pound in the country's international reserves in favor of gold, yuan and other currencies.

Thus, the share of the euro in Russia’s forex reserves decreased over the past year by 1.6 percentage points to 29.2% as of January 1. The share of the greenback dropped 3.3 percentage points, to 21.2%. The British pound’s share was also slightly down – by 0.2 percentage points, to 6.3%.

At the same time, Russia’s gold reserves surged to 23.3% from 19.5% a year earlier. The Chinese currency also saw a boost, with yuan holdings growing to 12.8%. The share of other foreign currencies increased by 0.8 percentage points to 7.2%, the regulator said.

According to the CBR, the Japanese yen accounted for 3.9% of Russia’s foreign holdings, Canadian dollars for 2.5% and Australian dollars for 0.8%.

In 2020, the value of the central bank’s assets in foreign currencies and gold increased to $588 billion.

Russia has been steadily diversifying national reserves since Washington began imposing sanctions in 2014, in order to cut its economy’s reliance on the US dollar. In 2019, the share of bullion holdings in Russia’s reserves surpassed US dollar holdings for the first time.

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