3/19/99 - Russia gold, currency reserves to decrease to dlr 10 billion.
<Picture>
MOSCOW, March 19 (Itar-Tass) - The gold and foreign currency reserves of Russia"s Central Bank will be reduced to about 10 billion dollars as of early April, Central Bank head Viktor Gerashchenko told reporters on Friday.
According to Gerashchenko, the reserves will decrease because Bank of Russia is to provide 2.1 billion dollars to repay Russia"s foreign debts in the first quarter of 1999.
Since the beginning of this year, Russia has allocated 1.5 billion dollars for the purpose.
The chief banker also noted that in case no agreement was reached with the International Monetary Fund, it would have negative effect on the bank"s reserves, the country"s economy on the whole and many foreign partners of Russia.
According to the data of Bank of Russia, cited by Prime-Tass, Russia"s gold and foreign currency reserves grew by 0.88 per cent to 11.4 billion dollars over the period from March 5 till March 12, 1999. However, as compared to the beginning of this year, when the reserves totaled 12.2 billion dollars, they decreased by 6.56 per cent. |
