The Central Bank of Russia’s Fx/gold reserves gained USD 0.4bn inching up by 0.78% w/w to USD 508.1bn. The reserves remain almost flat for four consecutive weeks. Four weeks ago at the end of July 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 data by the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) Fx/gold reserves decreased by 0.18% m/m and inched up by 0.45% y/y to USD 512.834bn in July 2013. 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 32.93 on Aug 20, increasing to RUB 32.97 on Aug 22 and up to RUB 33.06 on closing Aug 24. RUB/EUR rate was set at RUB 43.86 on Aug 20, increasing to RUB 44.21 on Aug 22 and moderating to RUB 44.10 on the closing Aug 24. On the closing date of Aug 24 the bi-currency basket (0.55 USD and 0.45 EUR) thus amounted to RUB 38.03 (up from RUB 37.89 on the preceding week).

According to a report by Reuters this week on Thursday Aug 29 RUB was traded on MICEX by the mid-session at RUB 38.07 to the bi-currency basket, cost of the basket decreasing by 7 kopek w/w and 14 kopek d/d. RUB to bi-currency moderated on MICEX from hitting the highest since September 2010 on the previous week. Overall RUB devalued by almost 10% to the basket ytd, out of which by 3.25% in the last month only.