The Central Bank of Russia’s Fx/gold reserves lost USD 0.1bn remaining almost flat w/w at USD 507.7bn. On the preceding week the Fx/gold reserves also remained unchanged. Three weeks ago the reserves bounced back slightly by USD 3.7bn from hitting the lowest reserve value since February 2012. Since mid-May the reserves have been fluctuating around nine-month low.

According to the data by the CBR Fx/gold reserves decreased by 0.18% m/m and inched up by 0.45% y/y to USD 512.834bn in July. This follows 2.77% m/m decrease of Fx/gold reserves in May and 0.9% m/m decrease in June. Since the beginning of the year the Fx/gold reserves lost 4.61% ytd or USD 24.78bn. In absolute terms Fx/godl reserves declined by USD 0.938bn in July. 

On the reporting week RUB/USD rate was set by the CBR at RUB 32.86 on Aug 13, increasing to RUB 33.16 on Aug 15 and moderating to RUB 32.94 on closing Aug 17. RUB/EUR rate was set at RUB 43.83 on Aug 13, increasing to RUB 43.98 on Aug 15 and moderating to RUB 43.94 on the closing Aug 17. On the closing date of Aug 17 the bi-currency basket (0.55 USD and 0.45 EUR) thus amounted to RUB 37.89 (up from RUB 37.86 on the preceding week).

According to a report by Reuters this week on Thursday Aug 22 RUB was traded on MICEX by the mid-session at RUB 38.14 to the bi-currency basket, cost of the basket increasing by 37 kopek w/w. RUB to bi-currency basket reached RUB 38.24 on MICEX (the highest since September 2010). Overall RUB devalued by almost 10% to the basket ytd, out of which by 3.25% in the last month only.