Page 65 - RusRPTJul21

Russia key trade results $bn
Indicators
January - May 2021
January - May 2020
Current account
35.8
26.6
Trade balance
49.6
44.2
Private Sector Financial Balance
24.6
32.3
Change in reserve assets *
12.7
-2.5
source: CBR
5.2.4 Gross international reserves
Russia’s international reserves hit a new all time high of $605.2bn as of June 1, as the CBR continues to accumulate cash on the back of favourable trade dynamics.
Of the gross international reserves, gold was up some $9bn month on month in May to $139.5bn or 23% of the total.
Russia will entirely remove the dollar from the basket of currencies in its National Welfare Fund (NWF) as the Kremlin’s drive to de-dollarize continues to gather momentum.
“We, like the Central Bank, have made a decision to reduce the NWF's investments in dollar-denominated assets. If today, in terms of structure, we have about 35% of the NWF's investments in dollars, 35% - in euros, then we decided to get out of dollar assets completely, replacing investments in dollars with an increase in euros, an increase in gold. Dollars [will be] 0%, euros - 40%, yuan - 30%, gold - 20%, pounds and yen - 5% each,” Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said, speaking at St Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) on June 3, as cited by RBC.
The rainy day fund was set up to support the budget in years where the government runs a budget deficit. But the fund has also become a strategic weapon in Russia’s sanctions battle with the US as the size of the fund makes sanctions largely ineffective.
Last year the government ran a budget deficit for the first time in years, but rather than take the money from the NWF, the Ministry of Finance chose to partly fund the deficit by issuing more Russian Ministry of Finance ruble-denominated OFZ treasury bills and increase Russia’s debt slightly in order to preserve the fund.
65 RUSSIA Country Report July 2021 www.intellinews.com