Russia bought 31 tonnes of gold in November

Russia added 31 tonnes of gold to its reserves in Novemberadded, according to the latest figures from the central bank. This means that the total gold reserve grows to 1,614.27 tonnes, good for sixth place in the ranking of Countries with the largest gold reservesSince the beginning of this year, Russia has already added nearly 200 tonnes of the precious metal to its reserves, similar to the total purchases of the whole of 2015.

In October , Russia also added a lot of gold to its vault, when a record amount of 40 tons was purchased. The central bank of Russia has been working for years on a redistribution of reserves, with the precious metal taking on a more prominent role. The central bank started a decade ago with Buy gold and has since been able to expand its gold holdings from less than 400 to more than 1,600 metric tons.

Russia bought 31 tonnes of gold in November

Foreign exchange reserves

Due to the decline in the price of gold, the total value of the gold reserve fell to $61.66 billion in November, compared to $64.4 billion in the month of October. Of the total reserves of about $385 billion, 16% are now precious metals. Ten years ago, this was less than 4%.

The graph below shows that Russia does draw on its currency reserves in times of crisis, but that it leaves its gold reserves untouched. In fact, the purchase of gold during the global financial crisis of 2008 and the economic crisis Russia has faced over the past two years has continued unabated.

Foreign exchange reserve and gold reserve Russia

Russia keeps buying gold

Russia 2015, added a record amount of 206 tons of gold to its reserves, a record that could be broken again this year. After eleven months, the counter has already reached 198.83 tonnes. The following chart shows that Russia has made great strides in expanding its gold reserves, especially in the last three years.

Central banks around the world are adding more precious metals to their reserves. Since the outbreak of the financial crisis, virtually no central bank has sold a substantial amount of gold. However, they do remove a few hundred tons of the yellow metal from the market every year, with Russia and China being the main buyers. The fact that central banks are still buying gold suggests that the precious metal is still undervalued.

Russia has already bought almost 200 tonnes of gold this year