N e w s

Russian gold and currency reserves increased by $300 million from February 25 to March 3 (by 2.2% - from $13.6 billion to $13.9 billion). The information was received from the Department of Foreign and Domestic Affairs of CBR.

The reserves increased by 11.2% from the beginning of 2000 when the amount was $12.5 billion.

Gold and currency reserves of the Central Bank of Russia and Finance Ministry include monetary gold, special credit rights, ICF reserve position and other liquid currency assets. Particularly, these assets include account balances, short-term deposits in banks, resident and non-resident, treasure bills of foreign governments, REPO contracts with these papers, operated with non-residents with no accumulated interest included. Currency assets of the Central Bank of Russia and Finance Ministry are evaluated in the US dollars on the basis of cross rates of national currencies against the US dollar. The rates are calculated in accordance with the official ruble exchange rate set by the Central Bank for due date.

Source: Prime-Tass