State Duma Wants To Know Reasons Of Reduction In Russia's Gold And Currency Reserves

The State Duma (lower parliamentary house) of Russia sent Thursday a parliamentary inquiry to Central Bank Chairman Viktor Gerashchenko "On Reasons of Reduction in Gold and Currency Reserves of the Russian Federation." According to a RIA Novosti correspondent, 285 deputies voted for the respective resolution with the required 226 votes, 2 deputies voted against and one abstained. According to the data provided by the deputies, over two weeks in late November-early December Russia's gold and currency reserves dropped by USD 2.5 billion. Last week the gold and currency reserves recovered and currently amount to USD 36.2 billion as before. Nevertheless, deputies would like to know, what reasons for the reduction were. The State Duma requires to present weekly data on the total amount of Central Bank currency deposits with commercial banks within the Russian Federation and outside it in September- December 2001, as well as provide information about the volumes and dates of redemption of the Central Bank debt to the International Monetary Fund in September-November 2001. The State Duma also requires to present weekly data on the volumes of selling and purchasing foreign exchange (including operations in the interbank market) by the Central Bank of Russia in September-December 2001.