The gold and foreign currency reserves held by Russia`s Central Bank totaled $195.9 billion on March 1, up 3.97% month-on-month, and 7.5% from the beginning of the year, the CBR said Tuesday.

The bank`s foreign currency reserves on March 1 reached $140.7 bln, up from $138.2 on February 1 and $137 bln on January 1.

Special Drawing Rights (SDRs, an international reserve asset, created by the International Monetary Fund) held by the CBR totaled $6 bln on March 1, unchanged from the beginning of the year. Russia`s reserve position in the IMF was $197 million (137 mln SDRs), down from $198 mln in February and up from $196 mln in January.

Gold reserves on March 1 totaled $6.9 bln, down 2.4% from the previous month`s figure of $7 bln, and up from $6.3 bln at the start of the year.

Other reserve assets totaled $48.2 bln ($43 bln and $38.7 bln in February and January respectively).

Since January 1 2006, the CBR has calculated its gold reserves based on the market rate. The bank had previously used a fixed price of $300 per troy ounce. The current international gold price is $555.4 per troy ounce.
sections: Economics