The Central Bank of Russia's (CBR) preliminary data shows that Fx/gold reserves decreased by 0.62% m/m and by 0.96% y/y to USD 509.674bn in August 2013. This follows three consecutive months of m/m Fx/gold reserves decline that started with 2.77% m/m decrease in May. In absolute terms Fx/gold reserves declined by USD 3.16bn m/m in August. Since the beginning of the year the Fx/gold reserves lost 5.2% ytd or USD 27.94bn.
In June, the gold reserves dropped by 14.4% m/m or USD 6.5bn to USD 38.55bn. In July and August gold recovered by 10.6% m/m and 6.7% m/m, respectively. In y/y terms gold reserves still lost 8.6% in August (-12.4% in July). At the same time Fx declined by 1.26% m/m or USD 5.78bn to USD 451.203bn in August. To remind, since the beginning of the year RUB lost about 10% to the bi-currency basket (0.55 USD and 0.45 EUR).
In 2012, after a USD 13.9bn dive of the indicator amidst RUB depreciation in June reserves swindled between USD 510bn and USD 514bn in June-Aug. CBR’s Fx/gold reserves recovered to USD 530bn in September and picked up further in December 2012 to RUB 537.618bn. Reserves recorded a 7.8% y/y growth in 2012 overall. In 2011 Fx/gold reserves increased by 4% y/y to USD 498.649bn.
Central Bank of Russia Reserves (USD bn) | ||||||||
Dec-08 | Dec-09 | Dec-10 | Dec-11 | Dec-12 | Jan-13 | July-13 | Aug-13 | |
Total Reserves | 427.080 | 436.267 | 479.379 | 498.649 | 537.618 | 532.155 | 512.834 | 509.674 |
Forex | 406.205 | 402.778 | 432.948 | 441.162 | 473.110 | 466.598 | 456.979 | 451.203 |
Gold | 14.533 | 22.753 | 35.788 | 44.697 | 51.039 | 51.960 | 42.630 | 45.472 |
Source: CBR |
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