According to the latest report from the Russian Central Bank, Russia has more gold than US dollars in its reserves for the first time. Russian President Vladimir Putin has made de-dollarization his country’s key policy to reduce Russian business’s exposure to the US dollar under severe sanctions.
Russia now has more gold in its reserves than US dollars
According to a report released this week by the Bank of Russia, gold surpassed the US dollar for the first time in Russia’s reserves of 583 billion US dollars. The country has increased its international reserves in recent years.
The report shows that gold represented 23% of the central bank’s reserves as of June 30, 2020, Bloomberg said, citing the latest data with a breakdown. The share of the US dollar in reserves has fallen from more than 40% in 2018 to 22%. The euro made up about a third of total assets, followed by gold, which is now the second largest component. About 12% are in Chinese yuan.
The rise in the gold component of the reserves is compounded by the 26% rise in the price of metals between June 2019 and June 2020, the release added. The report also found that the central bank purchased $ 4.3 billion worth of gold during the period.
Russia became the world’s largest gold buyer after spending more than $ 40 billion buying gold in the past five years. The central bank announced that it stopped buying gold in the first half of last year to encourage miners and banks to export more and bring foreign currency into the country.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has made de-dollarization his country’s key policy to reduce Russian economy’s exposure to dollar assets. Multi-year efforts to reduce Russia’s vulnerability to US sanctions can be attributed to deteriorating relations with Washington.
News.Bitcoin.com reported last August that Russia and China had worked together to reduce their dependency on the US dollar and that trades in USD between the two countries had fallen below 50%.
What do you think of Russia’s efforts to de-dollarize? Let us know in the comments below.
Photo credit: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, Bank of Russia, Bloomberg
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