Page 47 - RPTRusFeb17

5.2.4 Gross international reserves
Russia's Reserve Fund declined slightly to $16.07bn by March 1 f rom $16.18bn at the start of the previous month, finance ministry data showed on March 2. The Reserve Fund may grow later this year as the finance ministry has started buying foreign currency for the country's fiscal buffers.
The finance ministry also said that the National Wealth Fund, a fund designed to help balance the pension system, stood at $72.60bn as of March 1 versus $72.46bn as of February 1.
Russia’s total gross international reserves dipped by about $6bn from a recent high and were $394bn in January -- equivalent to an extraordinary 24 months of import cover or some 75% of Russia’s entire external debt. Russia’s GIR has fluctuated around $390bn for most of the crisis years, off from its all time high of c.$600bn.
Russia is the 18th largest holder of US Treasury securities , according to the US organ as of the end of December 2016. The Russian government has been steadily reducing its exposure ot T-bills as tensions with the US escalated: Russia’s T-bill holdings fell $1.9bn to $86.1bn in 2016. Japan remains the largest holder of US bonds with securities in the amount of $1.091 trillion. In December it reduced its volume by almost $18bn. China lost its lead to Japan in October, but boosted the number of US bonds in December by $9bn to $1.058 trillion. China was in the lead among the holders of US government bonds for almost all of last year.
47 RUSSIA Country Report February 2017 www.intellinews.com