Russia's gold and currency reserves stood at $588.3bn as of July 18, up $10bn, or 1.7 percent, from the previous showing. Combined with a $14.8bn rise over the previous two weeks, Russia's reserves climbed a total of $24.8bn, or 4.4 percent, in 15 working days. The increase in reserves can be linked to the euro's considerable advance against the dollar on international exchanges, as well as to the Central Bank's active purchases of foreign currency on the domestic market. As a result, Russia has somewhat narrowed the gap separating it from China and Japan, the world's leaders in terms of gold and currency reserves. China's reserves currently exceed $1.75 trillion, having jumped more than $74bn in April alone, whereas Japan held $1.015 trillion worth of reserves as of late April. |
