Cbank says considers FX/gold reserves diversification scenarios

MOSCOW, Jan 16 (PRIME) -- The central bank is considering various scenarios to diversify Russia’s foreign exchange and gold reserves, including the Chinese yuan, First Deputy Chairwoman Ksenia Yudayeva said at the Gaidar forum on Wednesday.

“The yuan’s share in the reserves has been growing since it became a reserve currency. We indeed consider various options, various possibilities, as our reserves are large. We see some scenarios in which the yuan is more interesting (in investment terms),” she said.

Earlier in January, the regulator said it had reduced the U.S. dollar’s share in the reserves by 24.4 percentage points on the year to 21.9% as of the end of June 2018 and raised the share of the euro by 6.9 percentage points to 32%. The share of the yuan grew to 14.7%.

Yudayeva also said that the central bank is getting ready for any possible future of the financial market in 2019m including tough scenarios.

“We see a high volatility period that is why the central banks should have all their tools prepared to react to any situation.”

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