Russia dumps half its US dollar holdings, while boosting gold, yuan & euro share of forex reserves

Russia has halved the US currency share from its international reserves in one year, opting instead to increase gold, yuan and euro holdings, recent data from the country’s central bank shows.

The greenback share fell from 43.7 percent to 23.6 percent in 12 months from March 2018, the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) said in its report released on Tuesday. The document was published with six month delay due to “high price sensitivity to the actions of major market participants,” including the CBR itself, the regulator explained.

Chinese currency saw the biggest boost in Russian foreign reserves with yuan holdings surging from 5 percent to 14.2 percent.

The euro accounted for 30.3 percent of Russia’s international holdings at the end of March, rising by 8.1 percent year-on-year.

Meanwhile, gold reserves jumped from 17.2 percent to 18.2 percent.

Ditching the dollar and the diversification of national reserves comes as Russia attempts to cut its economy’s reliance on the US currency amid Washington’s sanctions.

Moscow continues boosting its foreign exchange and gold assets, adding $27.2 billion to its coffers to reach $487.4 billion in the reported period. Driven by foreign currency acquisitions as well as gold purchases, Russia’s international reserves have topped half a trillion since then, and stood at $532.6 billion as of September 20.

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