Russia’s gold and forex reserves up $7.8bn

Russia’s gold and foreign currency reserves stood at $474 billion as of December 28, 2007, up $7.8 billion or 1.7 percent from $466.2 billion a week before, the Central Bank of Russia has reported. From December 14 to December 21, the reserves declined by $1.2 billion.

As a result, Russia has slightly reduced its gap from China and Japan, which have the largest gold and foreign currency reserves in the world. China’s reserves top $1.434 trillion, up $101 billion in the third quarter of this year alone and a more than 45 percent increase from January to September 2007 compared with the same period a year ago. Japan has over $945 billion.
The government had expected to bring Russia’s gold and foreign currency reserves to $470 billion by the end of 2007, but they fell slightly short of the target. As of January 1, 2007, the reserves stood at $303.7 billion.

Gold and foreign currency reserves are highly liquid financial assets controlled by the Central Bank and the Finance Ministry. They consist of monetary gold, special drawing rights, the reserve position in the International Monetary Fund, and foreign currency.

http://www.rbc.ru/