Some financial commentators have speculated that the ruble's plunge — it has dropped 44 percent against the dollar so far this year — will lead the Central Bank of Russia to sell some of its gold reserves and use the proceeds to buoy its currency.
But don't hold your breath, says Adrian Ash, head of research at online gold market BullionVault.com.
Thus far this year, Russia's central bank has actually represented the world’s largest acquirer of gold, he notes, pushing its holdings to 1,188 metric tons, its largest horde in 100 years. Those reserves are worth more than $45 billion at the current gold price of $1,196 an ounce.
"In reality, the CBR was still adding gold in November, and the odds are very slim that it will dare sell any gold yet, much less report it to the world,"
Ash writes on Forbes.com.
"First because there is another state-owned stockpile of precious metals to get through first, palladium. Second because even cold cash is unlikely to trump the political value of Russia’s gold reserves."
Other experts agree with Ash.
"I cannot imagine at all that Russia has sold gold or would sell gold, unless its foreign-exchange reserve are depleted," Carsten Fritsch, an analyst at Commerzbank,
told Bloomberg.
"Gold is the final bullet, because gold is a store of value and outside of the dollar system and not subject to sanctions."
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