1 Attachment(s)
Russia's investments in the US government debt fell to an 11-year low
MOSCOW, July 18 (Itar-Tass) - RIA Novosti. Russia's investments in the US government debt have fallen to a minimum since 2007. Now they are 14.9 billion dollars. This is evidenced by the data of the US Ministry of Finance.
Only in April-May, the portfolio of Russian participation in US Treasury bonds decreased three-fold.
Moscow began investing in US government bonds eleven years ago, before this significant investment was not.
The maximum investment was in October 2010 - 176.3 billion dollars.
In March of this year, Russia was on the 16th line of the rating of the largest holders of US treasury securities.
By April, Moscow "dropped" half of them, dropping to the 22nd line and retaining bonds only for 48.7 billion dollars.
Now Russia is not on the list of 33 largest holders. The leader of the list is China, which owns US bonds by almost $ 1.2 trillion. In May, Japan bought government bonds actively by purchasing bonds worth 17.5 billion. Now she has these papers at 1.049 trillion.
The head of the Central Bank Elvira Nabiullina explained that the regulator pursues a policy of diversifying international reserves and takes into account all risks, including financial, economic and geopolitical risks, when making decisions.
She also noted that the proceeds from the sale of American securities went to gold and foreign exchange reserves, which are needed to protect the economy, the ruble from external risks and ensure imports.
Attachments are risky
According to Alexei Zubets, vice-rector of the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, the Russian authorities were guided, first of all, by economic interests.
In his opinion, now investments in the US public debt are rather risky due to the increase in the refinancing rate of the Fed, that is, the growth of the value of money.
"In order to minimize their own losses, they began to sell, and long enough - they need to be sold at a high point of value, and then you can invest in other securities," he said on Sputnik radio.
In addition, according to Zubets, the low level of relations with the United States influenced the decision of the Russian authorities.
"We have repeatedly heard from the US calls to block Russian investments in US securities," the expert concluded.
The dollar causes concern
In turn, Alfa-Bank's chief economist, Natalya Orlova, expressed the opinion that the Central Bank could reduce investments in US treasury securities due to the fact that in the conditions of trade wars, the dynamics of the dollar is worrying.
She noted that a large amount of funds in US Treasury bonds was due to interventions in the foreign exchange market conducted by the Bank of Russia, and the Russian domestic market was dollarized.
"Now, as the Central Bank has no obligation to intervene, it is more possible to diversify into other currencies." In a floating exchange rate, it's not surprising that such a thing could happen, "the economist said.
Orlova believes that such actions of the regulator reflect new priorities in the management structure of international reserves.
According to the analyst, the Bank of Russia could re-invest in some European securities due to the fact that in the past few months there was a certain turbulence in European markets. Bonds, including sovereigns, fell in price, so there were interesting opportunities for increasing the position in this market, said Orlova.
