Photo from www.gettyimages.com Russia Shifts Part of Its Forex Reserves from Dollars to Euros MosNews
On Thursday, June 8, Russia became the latest in the list of countries that shifted a part of its Central Bank reserves from the dollar. Sergei Ignatyev, chairman of the Central Bank, said that only 50 percent of its reserves are now held in dollars, with 40 percent in euros and the rest in pounds sterling. Earlier it was believed that just 25-30 percent of Russias reserves were held in euros, with virtually all the rest held in dollars.
Russias gold and foreign currency reserves have grown rapidly over the last few years in tandem with high oil and gas prices. As MosNews has reported earlier, Russia currently has the worlds fourth-largest reserves, after China, Japan and Taiwan, and it looks to overcome Taiwan by the end of the year, with reserves growing by $5-6 billion monthly.
The Russian Central Banks move ties in with increasing signs that Middle Eastern oil exporters are also looking to diversify their reserves out of the dollar. This is a bearish development for the dollar, Chris Turner, head of currency research at ING Financial Markets, told the British Financial Times. It reminds us that global surpluses are accumulating to the oil exporters,and Russia is telling us that an increasingly lower proportion of these reserves will be held in dollars. This suggests there is a trend shift away from the dollar.
Clyde Wardle, senior Emerging Market Currency strategist at HSBC, told the paper: We have heard talk that Middle Eastern countries are doing a similar thing and even some Asian countries have indicated their desire to do so.
Moscows move was unsurprising. Russias $71.5billion Stabilization fund, which accumulates windfall oil revenues, is due to be converted from rubles to 45 percent dollars, 45 percent euros and 10 percent sterling. The day-to-day movements of the ruble are monitored against a basket of 0.6 dollars and 0.4 euros. About 39 percent of Russias goods imports came from the eurozone in 2005, against just 4 percent from the US.
The statement plays into a perception that central banks, which together hold $4.25 trillion of reserves, are increasingly channeling fresh reserves away from the dollar to reduce potential losses if the dollar was to fall sharply.
Dos medidas económicas tomadas por el presidente ruso Vladimir Putin han causado el reajuste sucedido la semana anterior en las principales bolsas de valores del mundo.

Una de estas medidas, tomada el pasado jueves (8), fue el cambio de una parte de sus reservas internacionales en dólares a euros, obligando al Banco de la Reserva Federal de los Estados Unidos a elevar las tasas de intereses para proteger la moneda estadounidense y prevenir un aumento en la inflación.

Las reservas internacionales de divisa de Rusia después de la medida se distribuyen así: 40% en euros, 50% en dólares y un 10% en libras esterlinas. Dichas reservas han crecido rápidamente debido al alza en los precios de petróleo y del gas, y es hoy el cuarto país con las mayores reservas del mundo, después de Japón, China y Taiwán. Se estima que las reservas rusas superarán a las de Taiwán para finales del presente año.

La movida rusa sucede en momentos en que varios países productores del petróleo han manifestado sus intenciones de diversificar la distribución de sus reservas de divisa internacional.

La segunda decisión tomada por el Kremlin, también el jueves, fue la de por primera vez empezar a cotizar petróleo y oro en moneda local en el Sistema Mercantil Ruso (RTS), como se conoce a la bolsa de valores rusa.