Russia’s gold/forex reserves go down by 5% in Sept to near $517 bln – bank

Russia’s gold/forex reserves go down by 5% in Sept to near $517 bln – bank.

MOSCOW, October 7 (Itar-Tass) —— Russia’s gold and foreign exchange reserves (or international reserve assets) amounted to 516.848 billion U.S. dollars as of October 1, which is 5.2 percent smaller than a month ago, the Central Bank of Russia said in its regular report on Friday.

As of September 1, 2011, the country’s international reserves made up 545.012 billion U.S. dollars, versus 533.905 billion U.S. dollars as of August 1, the bank said.

As of January 1, 2011, the country’s international reserves amounted to 479.379 billion U.S. dollars, the bank reaffirmed.

In the first nine months of the year, the country’s international reserve assets increased by 7.8 percent, the bank said.

Touching upon the major factors of the September decline of the country’s reserve assets, the bank mentioned the negative currency revaluation caused by the decrease of the euro exchange rate and the Bank of Russia’s interventions aimed at the prevention of the rouble weakening.

In spite of the significant reduction of Russia’s international reserve assets against the background of the global financial instability and capital outflow from the country, the Central Bank of Russia is not going to update its forecast for 2011.

Earlier this week, First Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank Alexei Ulyukayev confirmed that the country’s international reserves will be at 515 billion U.S. dollars by the end of the year.

Russia’s international reserves include foreign currency assets, the Special Drawing Rights (SDR), the country’s reserve position in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and monetary gold, the bank said.

The country’s international reserve assets reached their maximum worth 598.1 billion U.S. dollars on August 8, 2008, the bank reaffirmed. In the crisis period, the reserves dropped to 376 billion U.S. dollars (in the middle of March 2009).