In the political and financial situation of the country on the world stage, a large role is played by the volume of international reserves. In this sense, Russia is steadily held in the top ten, even despite the direct dependence of the volume of reserves on oil prices.
Definition of gold reserves
Gold and foreign currency, or as they are also called, international reserves (gold reserves) are state assets that have a high degree of liquidity and are managed by the country's main monetary institution. As a rule, such a body is the Central Bank. By default, gold and foreign currency reserves are calculated in monetary gold and foreign currency, which is called reserve. Today, there are only two such currencies - the US dollar and the euro. In addition, the gold reserves include special drawing rights, or SDR (Special Drawing Rights) issued by the International Monetary Fund, as well as reserve positions in the IMF.
The international reserves of the Russian Federation include all components.
Structuring Reserves
Today, financial institutions are much more diverse and have a broader understanding than before. Therefore, the components of financial state reserves are more substantial elements. Funds in foreign currency are not only cash in the world reserve monetary unit. They also include deposits, including in gold, loans under reverse repos issued with central banks, the Bank for International Settlements, as well as in commercial banks with high credit ratings according to the standards of international rating agencies S&P, Moody's and Fitch Ratings.
Debt securities issued by foreign companies also belong to this type of reserves. The rating of issued securities should also be high according to the standards of international rating agencies S&P, Moody's and Fitch Ratings. The structure of gold reserves also includes securities transferred as loans.
International savings in foreign reserves are translated into US dollars at official exchange rates.
International Monetary Fund as part of Gold and Gold reserves
Artificial reserves and means of payment include Special Drawing Rights, or Special Drawing Rights. This instrument is issued by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), it does not have cash, that is, it represents only entries in bank accounts. It is circulated only within the Fund and is used to balance the balance of payments, to cover the deficit and credit obligations. SDRs have neither debt nor currency characteristics.
This tool appeared in 1969 with the aim of leveling the Triffin dilemma, which reflected the contradictions in the Bretton Woods system of organizing monetary relations and settlements between countries. The contradiction arose in the clash of the national nature of the reserve currency and its international characteristics.
The reserve position in the IMF includes reserve and credit shares. The excess of the money supply quota over the amount that is in the Fund on the accounts of the state party is called the reserve share. Accordingly, a credit share allows you to purchase IMF funds in excess of the reserve share.
Traditional gold
The structure of the international reserves of the Russian Federation, of course, also contains reserves of monetary gold, that is, physically existing. Initially, gold reserves were formed to ensure national currencies. Since 1937, the Russian ruble has been pegged to the dollar. However, after the war in the USSR, the gold mining industry began to rapidly gain momentum, with each year the gold reserves in the treasury increased by 100 tons. In 1950, Stalin decided to unbind the ruble to the dollar and establish the gold content of the national currency of the Soviet Union. Two years later, Stalin put forward the idea of creating an alternative to the dollar market. But I did not manage to realize the idea. After the death of Stalin, Nikita Khrushchev chose a pro-Western path of development. The Soviet leader considered the ruble to be secured with gold untimely and returned the pegging of the Russian currency to the US dollar.
In the United States, the dollar was secured with gold until 1971, when President Richard Nixon officially announced the abolition of gold security for the dollar. By that time, the country's state gold reserves were reduced to a record 9.83 thousand tons from 21.8 thousand tons in 1949. It was then that the international currency market with floating exchange rates appeared. The market is characterized by free market conditions. And although officially the dollar and the pound have lost the status of reserve currencies, the American dollar has not only preserved, but has strengthened its position by all means.
The last time US gold reserves were thoroughly audited in 1953. The stock is stored in four repositories. In addition to the US state stock, reserves of precious metals in at least 60 countries are stored in the country. The amount of native and foreign reserves is kept secret, giving rise to many rumors in this regard.
Red gold of Russia
According to data from open sources, Russia's international reserves today contain 1238 tons of gold. According to this indicator, the Russian Federation officially ranks sixth in the world. The share of gold in the total volume of gold reserves is 12%. It is worth noting that before the start of World War I, the Russian Empire had one of the largest gold volumes in the world - 1.4 thousand tons. World and civil wars pretty much devastated the treasury - by 1928 only 150 tons remained. In the Stalin period, the treasury was again “swollen” and already contained 2.5 thousand tons by 1953. However, then the gold reserves only decreased, its rather large volume was sold abroad by Nikita Khrushchev. In 1991, representatives of the country's leadership claimed that only 290 tons of precious metal remained from the Soviet heritage.
Russian gold reserves are divided into two disproportionate parts. A large part, which is controlled by the Central Bank in agreement with the Russian government, is stored directly in the Bank of Russia. The second part is located in the State Fund of precious metals and precious stones of the Russian Federation, decisions on the expenditure and replenishment of this part of the reserve are made directly by the president and the government.
The dynamics of gold reserves
At the beginning of 2014, experts estimated the reserves of yellow precious metal included in the international reserves of the Russian Federation at $ 40 billion. Although during the whole of 2013 the Central Bank actively purchased gold in the Russian market, nevertheless, according to analysts, the cost of precious metals decreased by $ 11 billion. This led to the fact that at the end of 2013, the gold level fell to 7.8%, which is included in the total international reserves of the Russian Federation. The share of the currency component in the basket at the beginning of last year was brought up to 92.2%.
Analysts say that since the beginning of this year, the Central Bank has continued to increase gold reserves in gold reserves, increasing their volume by three times. Since this behavior is unusual in the gold market, foreign experts suggest that it is the distrust of the US currency that pushes the Central Bank of the Russian Federation to purchase.
