Contrary to recent speculation that Russia would sell some of its gold reserves to aid its plummeting currency, the ruble, the Russian Central Bank has announced that it expanded its gold reserves in December by an additional 18.7 tonnes, or 600,000 ounces.
The fall of the
ruble has been linked to several recent events, including the rebel uprising in Ukraine, sanctions imposed by the U.S. and Europe following the annexation of Crimea and, perhaps most importantly, the prices of oil and gas taking an ongoing dive. This caused the ruble to sink by as much as 50 percent over the course of the last year.
Given the ruble’s struggles, it should, then, come as no surprise that Russia continues stocking up on gold – now for the ninth consecutive month. “Clearly President Putin is a believer in the ultimate economic benefits of a strong national gold holding – particularly if some kind of global reserve currency realignment lies ahead in the relatively near future,” Lawrence Williams wrote in a recent report. As proven throughout the course of history, gold is one of the plavix price in australia safest choices to turn to when expecting unfavorable economic developments. The decision to
shift the central bank’s assets to the precious metal comes in contrast to the expectations of some observers that Russia would instead end up selling off gold in order to strengthen its currency.
Prior to its recent maneuvers, it’s interesting to note that Russia was already fifth on the list of countries with the world’s largest gold reserves:
But Russia has many other means by which it can build its gold reserves, especially given the fact that as of data from 2013, the nation is the third largest gold miner in the world. In fact, the amount of gold that Russian mines produce on an annual basis is said to exceed http://clomidgeneric-pharmacy.net/ the amount acquired in December. This hints towards Russia focusing mainly towards accumulating gold rather than exporting it – not unlike China. Russia’s gold http://vardenafilcialis-generic.org/ output likely hasn’t changed in 2014, leaving only Australia and China as countries with larger yearly gold production:
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