MOSCOW, April 30 /ITAR-TASS/. Russia’s gold and foreign exchange reserves (or the national reserve assets) went up by 0.7 billion U.S. dollars over a week from April 12 through April 18, 2014, to stand at 482.7 billion U.S. dollars, the External and Public Relations Department of the Central Bank said on Wednesday
Over the preceding week (April 12 - April 18, 2014), the national reserves increased by 4.3 billion U.S. dollar to total 482.0 billion U.S. dollars as of April 18. Therefore, the regulator registered the growth in the international reserve assets for the third week in a row: the indicator gained up 8.8 billion U.S. dollars in the period from April 4 through April 25.
As of January 1, 2014, the Russian gold and foreign exchange reserves amounted to 510.5 billion U.S. dollars (in compliance with updated information). But simultaneously with the weakening of the Russian rouble exchange rate the national reserve assets mainly decreased.
Foreign exchange and gold reserves are highly liquid foreign assets at the disposal of the Bank of Russia and the Russian government on a certain date. They comprise monetary gold, Special Drawing Rights, reserves with the International Monetary Fund, and foreign currency. Foreign exchange and gold reserves are external assets controlled by the monetary authorities and may be used for financing balance-of-payments deficits, for interventions in currency markets affecting the national currency's rates or for similar purposes.