Page 42 - RusRPTFeb22

5.1.2 Gross international reserves
At the end of 2021, Russia's foreign exchange reserves were the fifth largest in the world, at $630bn. Over the past year, the value of foreign exchange reserves increased by about 6%. Of the reserve, gold was $133bn, or about 21%.
At the end of last year, China ($3,427bn), Japan ($1,406bn), Switzerland ($1,083bn) and India ($633bn) had larger foreign exchange reserves than Russia. Some central banks hold relatively large foreign exchange reserves because they still have an exchange rate target. The Russian ruble is floating freely, but according to the budget rule, the Russian central bank buys currency on the market on behalf of the Ministry of Finance when the price of oil exceeds a certain threshold. In addition, the dollar value of foreign exchange reserves is affected by e.g. the price of gold and movements in other currencies against the dollar.
The structure of Russia's foreign exchange reserves is clearly different from most other central banks in the world. At the end of June 2021, 32.3% of the reserve was in euros and 16.4% in dollars. In 2018 ( BOFIT Weekly 3/2019 ), the central bank transferred a significant portion of its dollar investments to the Chinese yuan, and in June 2021, the share of yuan-denominated investments was 13.1%. Gold accounted for 21.7% of total reserves. According to IMF statistics, the yuan accounted for only 2.6% of central banks' foreign exchange reserves in June. The Central Bank of Russia accounted for a quarter of all central bank yuan investments ($314bn).
42 RUSSIA Country Report February 2022 www.intellinews.com