OREANDA-NEWS. Russia is currently one of the five leaders in terms of international reserves, second only to China, Japan, Switzerland and India, the Accounts Chamber said following an audit of the management of gold and foreign exchange reserves.

"The volume of Russia's international reserves exceeded 618.2 billion US dollars (as of September 1, 2021). This is a historic record - for the entire existence of the Bank of Russia, such indicators have not been achieved," the auditors noted.

According to the Accounting Chamber, since the beginning of 2015, reserves have grown by $ 235 billion. "At present, Russia ranks fifth in the world in terms of the volume of international reserves. Only China, Japan, Switzerland and India are ahead," the joint venture stated.

The control agency notes that in recent years Russia has noticeably increased the share of gold in its international reserves - from 7.8% at the beginning of 2014 to 23.3% at the end of 2020. "In addition to gold and foreign currency, Russian reserves include special drawing rights - a reserve means of payment issued by the International Monetary Fund. Their amount has also increased significantly: from $ 7 billion to $ 24.6 billion," the statement said.

The Accounts Chamber noted that the Bank of Russia has achieved the goal of managing reserves, having achieved an optimal combination of their safety, liquidity and profitability. “The Central Bank has created key elements for managing foreign exchange reserves, carried out measures to improve the regulatory and methodological base, created conditions for fulfilling the assigned function,” the auditors explained.

Based on the results of the expert and analytical event, the Accounts Chamber sent information letters to the Bank of Russia and the government, in which, in particular, proposals were formulated to improve the legal regulation of the system for managing Russia's international reserves.

According to the Central Bank, Russia's international reserves as of October 1 amounted to $ 614.122 billion.