Russian
Gold Reserves Grow by 1,000,000 Ounces In August by Louis Cammarosano
| September 18, 2015
Russian Gold Reserves.
Russian Gold Purchases in August 2015.
Russia added one million ounces (31.1 tons) of gold to its
reserves in August.
Russia Boosts Gold Reserves and U.S. Treasury Holdings.
Russian Gold Reserves
It was reported today that the Central Bank
of the Russian Federation announced its official August
2015 reserve assets and other foreign currency assets report
indicating that its gold reserves had increased 1,000,000
ounces from its July 2015 report to 42.4 million ounces.
Russia added one million ounces of gold
to its reserves in 2015 through August.
Since 2009 Russia has added more than 711
tons of gold to its reserves more than China who added (623
tons) during the same time period. The increase in August
reserves was the most since March 2015 when Russia also
added one million ounces of gold to its reserves.
The Russian Central Bank recently announced
that they would be boosting their foreign reserves by about
40% from $356 billion to about $500 billion.
“Recent experiences forced us to reconsider
some of our ideas about sufficient and comfortable levels
of gold reserves,” said Elvira Nabiullina, Chairwoman Russian
Central Bank.
Russia has been rebalancing its foreign
reserves to favor gold vs. U.S. Treasury Bonds. Russia’s
gold buying binge has coincided with a steady sell off of
her U.S. Treasuries. It might be expected that as Russia
increases its foreign reserves it would do so at least in
proportion with that of its current gold reserves.
Russian Monthly Gold Purchases June 2014
– August 2015
Russia has added 7.7 million ounces (239
tonnes) to its reserves from June 2014 through August 2015
and 3.6 million ounces (112 tonnes) from January 2015 through
August 2015.
In a recent CNBC interview Ms. Nabiullina
remarked on Russia’s increasing gold reserves “…we base
ourselves upon the principles of diversification of our
international reserves and we bought gold not only last
year but during the previous years. Our gold mining industry
is very well developed and it is ready to supply gold. That
is why our attitude towards here is based upon diversification
of our reserves.”
Ms. Nabiullina also dispelled the notion
that the objective to increase Russia’s gold reserves was
a function of buying up domestic gold supply that could
not be sold abroad: “…we don’t run the objective to support
any specific industry. In terms of the share of gold, actually
we are not holding the records because there are countries
that have a bigger share of gold in their reserves.”
In July Russia added 400,000 ounces of gold
to its reserves and $9.7 billion of U.S. Treasuries.
Russian Gold Reserves in Tons 1994-2015
Russia has added 112 tons of gold to its
reserves through August 2015.
Russian U.S. Treasury Holdings
Russia’s U.S. Treasury Bond Holdings January
2014-July 2015
Russia added $9.7 billion in U.S. Treasuries
to its reserves in July, increasing its US Treasury reserves
three months in a row.
This is a developing story – check
back for updates and further charts and analysis.