Russia boosts it's gold holdings

Moscow (Feb 22)  Russia’s FX holdings increased to a total of $591.5 billion (February 12) according to the latest data released by the country’s central bank shows. This means the weekly growth amounted to $5.4 billion or 0.9 percent.

This was said to be driven by “positive exchange rate revaluation and higher gold prices.”. Last week marked the first growth of Russia’s international reserves this month after two consecutive weeks of decline.
 The mix of assets, which are highly liquid foreign assets comprising stocks of monetary gold, foreign currencies and Special Drawing Rights (SDR) assets, have been steadily growing in recent years and are almost $100 billion above the half-trillion-dollar target set by the central bank. Despite the coronavirus pandemic, the reserves surged by over $40 billion last year.

When it comes to the balance the banks also been boosting their share of gold and simultaneously cutting its share of the US dollar in its forex holdings. In 2019, its share of bullion holdings surpassed US dollar holdings for the first time. The drop in the greenback could be a significant factor here. According to the county’s regulator, its share of the dollar decreased to 22.2 percent, while its gold share jumped to 22.9 percent over the year to June 30.

Reuters