Central Bank comments on rising gold and currency reserves - 7 March, 2003

Russia's gold and currency reserves increased 11 percent since the beginning of 2003 and totaled $53.61bn as of March 1, 2003, the Russian Central Bank reported. The source specified that the country's gold and currency reserves went up 7.6 percent in February 2003.

In particular, Russia's currency reserves reached $49.326bn as of March 1, 2003, which was 8.3 percent more than as of February 1, 2003 and 11.9 percent more compared to the beginning of this year. Russia's gold reserves dropped by $5m in February or by $4m since the beginning of this year to $3.735bn as of March 1, 2003.