Russia`s gold and foreign exchange reserves stood at $417.1bn as of September 7, up $1.1bn, or 0.3 percent, from a week earlier.

Combined with a $2.2bn advance since the previous week, reserves increased by $3.3bn over the last ten working days. As a result, the recent rise has only partially recouped the $6.4bn loss from August 10-24.

Reserves have already reached the previous month`s level, making only modest progress towards bridging the gap between Russia and the world leaders in terms of reserves, China and Japan. Chinese reserves currently exceed $1.33 trillion, having gained 131bn in Q2 alone, while Japan boasts over $914m in reserves.

Over the first eight months of 2007, Russia`s international reserves have increased by $113.4bn as of September 7, falling short of the Bank of Russia`s growth projection for the entire year by a mere $1.5bn.
sections: Economics