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Russia Breaks Records in Gold/Fx Reserves
Central Bank of Russia said its gold/foreign exchange reserves reached $413.1 billion as of July 20. The amount is the record one for history of the former Soviet Union and Russia.
The CBR reserves widened by $1.9 billion, or 0.5 percent, vs. the previous amount, benefiting from the three-week growth. The reserves stepped up by $7.1 billion, or nearly 2 percent during that period of relatively short duration.
CBR’s aggressive acquisition of foreign currency on domestic market and the worldwide surge in euro appreciation vs. the U.S. dollar could be the reasons of such skyrocketing increase.
But in this indicator, Russia still drags behind China and Japan that are worldwide leaders. China, for instance, has over $1.33 trillion in reserves, posting the Q1 growth of nearly $136 billion. Japan laid aside more than $914 billion.
At the same time, CBR forecasts some slowdown for the nearest months. According to CBR Board Chairman Sergey Ignatiev, the acceleration won’t be that high due to weaker payment balance. “Therefore, our forecasts are relatively moderate in part of the gold/foreign exchange reserves growth in the nearest two or three years,” Ignatiev pointed out.
www.kommersant.com
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Photo: Alexey Kudenko