Russian gold and currency reserves rocket - 13 March, 2003

On March 7, the volume of the Central Bank's gold and currency reserves reached $54.6bn, gaining $1.5bn over the previous week. This advance has become the most considerable since July 1998. It is worth mentioning that in July 1998, gold and currency reserves of the Central Bank grew by $1.5bn due to receiving $5.6bn in a credit from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The current increase in gold and currency reserves took place not due to foreign loans, but solely due to a considerable purchase of US dollars by the Central Bank from commercial banks.

The amount of gold and currency reserves has been continually going up for over two months, since January 3, 2003. Over this period, the reserves climbed $6.9bn.