Russia plans to cut share of US dollar in National Wealth Fund: Ministry
Russia intends to lower the share of US dollar and diversify the foreign currencies it holds in the National Wealth Fund, a source at the country’s finance ministry says.
Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation plans to cut the share of the American dollar in the country’s sovereign wealth fund in 2020, Reuters quoted an unnamed source at the ministry as saying on Thursday.
According to the source, who was speaking on condition of anonymity, the ministry intends to add more foreign currencies to the fund, which stood at $124.5 billion as of November 1.
The finance ministry’s figures show that the US dollar accounted for 45.5 percent of the fund at the end of September while the euro’s share was 39.17 percent and the British pound accounted for another 7.67 percent.
However, it is not yet clear what currencies have made up the remaining 7.66 percent.
Reuters added in its report that Russia’s finance ministry and the central bank did not immediately reply to its requests for comment.
Moscow has already declared that it would go to every length to reduce the share of the US dollar from its trade and economic relations with other countries.
Last month, Russia and Turkey took a major step in their move to de-dollarize mutual trade as the two agreed to use local currencies for payments instead of the US dollar.
Russia’s central bank also announced last month that it had lowered its dollar savings by almost a half, saying it had instead opted for holding reserves in China’s currency yuan, in euro and in gold.
Countries like Iran and China have also adopted a similar forex policy, as they keep ditching the greenback from many of their exchanges with other countries.
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