Central Bank's reserves drop to one-month low

Gold and currency reserves of the Russian Central Bank amounted to $47.8bn as of January 3, 2003. This means the reserves increased by $100m over the previous week. A rise in the bank's gold and currency reserves was registered for the first time over the past two weeks. Nevertheless, this rise in gold and currency reserves has compensated only for 50 percent of the recent fall, when the bank's reserves dropped $200m on December 27, 2002. As a result, the Central Bank's gold and currency reserves actually returned to the level of December 6, 2002, when they where registered at $47.8bn as well.