BOFIT Viikkokatsaus / BOFIT Weekly Review 2016/29
At the end of last year, the CBR’s foreign currency and gold reserves held about $50 billion in gold. Some 43 % of the other reserves were dollar-denominated assets, 40 % euro assets and 11 % British pound assets. The remaining 6% of assets were in other currencies e.g. Canadian dollars. The share of euro-denominated assets fell notably last year, to below the level two years ago. Conversely the share of dollar-denominated assets rose almost the same amount. Some 83 % of currency reserves was invested in sovereign bonds of other countries, mainly the US, France and Germany. As earlier, about 23 % of all investment was in high-grade (AAA) assets, and 67 % in AA-grade assets (72 % at the end of 2013). The remaining 10 % was in A-grade or ungraded assets (a little over 4 % two years ago).