News Bites
The Russian central bank's gold holdings and the struggling ruble
(Kitco News) - Statista Data Journalist Katharina Buchholz has recently put together some data on where the Russian central bank's gold is being held.
China was the single-biggest foreign holder of Russian central bank reserves as of June 30, 2021, holding 13.8% of the total of Russia's reserves. The report said that the holdings are a mix of gold and foreign currency and roughly the same share of assets held in Chinese yuan.
The report said Russia itself holds the biggest share of reserves. The main component of Russia's holdings is gold, making up 21.7 percent of the total. With the sanctions against its central bank progressing, this means Russia would likely remain in charge of around one-third of its current $630 billion strong reserves through domestic gold and Chinese yuan.
Recently EU countries, along with the U.K., U.S., and Canada, moved to freeze Russia's assets. According to Statista, around 25 percent of Russia's reserve assets were held in France, Germany, and Austria. The total reserves held in Eurozone stood at about 32%, a significant figure.
The report said that about 21.7% of the total central bank reserves are gold.
Longer-term, as there is a flight of capital from Russia, gold could start to look even more attractive. On Monday, it was reported that Russia's central bank said it would resume buying gold on the domestic market from this week. It is taking these measures to try and ensure financial stability during Western sanctions against Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine.
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