Management of International Reserves of Russia: Modern Practice, Directions of Improvement

The necessity of the formation of the international reserves in any country is determined by its need in the security reserve in case of the crisis situations in the currency and financial sphere. In this respect the monetary authorities may face the goal of the evaluation of the optimal volume and the structure of the reserve assets from the point of view of the specificity of the economic situation of the country. In the article on the basis of the analysis of the dynamics of international reserves, their correlation with the GDP and also the coefficient of the coverage of imports the adequacy of reserve cash holdings of Russia is assessed. The obtained results are compared with the values typical of some groups of countries. The distribution of the official reserves of Russia into currency cash holdings and monetary gold and the choice of separate currencies is analyzed. The conclusion is drawn about the necessity of the change of the structure of the international reserves in the whole and of their currency composition. The main directions of the improvement of the modern practice of the management of the official reserve assets by the Bank of Russia the restraint of their growth rate and the increase in the structure of the currency reserves of the share of the Chinese yuan are suggested.