Among the sovereign holders of gold, Russia rose to the 5th place, surpassing China, reports Bloomberg. The agency notes that the reserves of monetary gold in international reserves of the Russian Federation in January rose to 1,857 tons. The volume of the PRC's gold reserve is 1,000. 843 tons. Russia has increased its reserves monthly since March 2015, while China last reported on the purchase of gold in October 2016. The largest holder of precious metal is still the United States with a stock of 8134 tons, most of which is located in the storage facilities of Fort Knox military base.

The second place is occupied by Germany (3374 tons), the third - Italy (2452 tons), followed by France (2436 tons). According to the research firm Metals Focus, the bulk of gold purchases in Russia comes from domestic production - our country is the third largest producer of this metal in the world, the newspaper writes..

It is emphasized that an increase in the gold reserve allows Moscow to diversify its foreign exchange reserves amid deterioration of relations with the United States and anti-Russian sanctions. Previously, the media wrote that the reserves of the noble metal of Russia and China may be more than the US, which will put the dollar in an "uncomfortable position," and Washington will be pushed into the global economy. In September last year, the Central Bank of Russia and the People's Bank of China came to an agreement on cooperation in the field of exchange trading in gold.