Russia adds $4.5 BILLION to foreign exchange reserves in 1 week

Russian gold & foreign currency reserves have increased to $589.8 billion, according to the latest data released by the central bank.

The international funds grew by $4.5 billion, or about 0.8 percent, last week (October 16-23). The regulator noted that the growth was driven by “positive revaluation and gold prices growth.”

Statistics showed that since January 1, Russia boosted forex reserves by $35.4 billion. They were up by 18.3 percent last year.

The state’s international reserves are highly liquid foreign assets comprising stocks of monetary gold, foreign currencies, and Special Drawing Right (SDR) assets, which are at the disposal of the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) and the government. The current level of holdings is higher than the target of $500 billion set by the CBR.

Russia has been boosting the reserves for four years running. Last year, growth totaled nearly $86 billion, while 2018 and 2017 saw increases of around $33 billion and $55 billion respectively.

The country has also been reshaping its international holdings, cutting the share of the US dollar in favor of other currencies and gold. Last year, the CBR reported that the greenback share fell from 43.7 percent to 23.6 percent in 12 months from March 2018.

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