CBR to continue to boost share of gold in reserves - Ulyukayev
MOSCOW. Oct 20 (Interfax) - The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) will continue to boost the share of gold in its reserves, the CBR's First Deputy Chairman Alexei Ulyukayev said to the State Duma on Thursday.
"In terms of growth rates, we're the biggest buyer. We don't plan to deviate form this path," he said.
The CBR has been implementing its program to increase gold in its reserves for several years, he said.
The CBR said its reserves contained 852.2 tonnes of gold as of October 1, the world's seventh largest holding. This gold was worth $44.352 billion on October 1, the CBR said on its website.
The CBR had 790 tonnes of gold on January 1.
The overall reserves were worth $516.848 billion on October 1, so the share of gold in the reserves had gone up to 8.58% as of that date, from 7.5% at the start of the year.
Central Bank First Deputy Chairman Georgy Luntovsky has said the CB plans to buy over 100 tonnes of gold for the reserves per year.
It increased monetary gold in the reserves by 152.4 tonnes or 4.9 million oz (23.9%) in 2010.