Value of Russia's Gold Reserves Hits Record $255 Billion

The value of Russia's gold reserves reached a record $250 billion at the end of August, according to Bank of Russia data reviewed by RIA Novosti. After a modest decline in July, the country's gold holdings rose 2.6% over the month to $255 billion — the highest figure in modern history.

The regulator also reported that Russia's international reserves grew to $689.5 billion as of the morning of September 1, up from $681.5 billion on August 1, a gain driven by the rising valuation of the precious metal within the reserve basket.

Gold share at its highest since 1999

As a result of August's gains, the share of gold in Russia's reserve assets increased to 37% from 36.5% a month earlier. That is the maximum since October 1999, when the precious metal accounted for 39.7% of reserves — although its value back then stood at merely $4.7 billion.

• Gold holdings: up 2.6% in August to a record $255 billion in modern history.
• Value of gold reserves: a record $250 billion at the end of August.
• International reserves: $689.5 billion on September 1, versus $681.5 billion on August 1.
• Gold share: 37%, the highest since October 1999 (39.7% then, worth only $4.7 billion).
• Historic maximum share: 56.9% on January 1, 1993.
• Historic minimum share: 2.1% in June 2007.

A long arc of reserve restructuring

The historical comparisons underline how far the structure of Russia's reserves has moved over three decades. At the start of 1993 gold made up more than half of reserve assets at 56.9%; by June 2007 its weight had collapsed to the record low of 2.1%. The current 37% share — the strongest in almost 26 years — combines a far larger stock of the metal with a record dollar valuation.

The figures come from the central bank's regular reporting on international reserves. The August jump in the gold share followed a small July dip in the value of holdings, and the renewed increase lifted both the absolute valuation and the metal's weight in the reserve basket to multi-decade reference points cited by the regulator's statistics.