MOSCOW — Russia’s gold and foreign currency reserves continue to drop. They were $142 billion on July 22, $100 million down from $142.1 billion a week earlier, the central bank of Russia reported.

The reserves have dropped for the third straight week. From July 1 to 22, they reduced by $9.8 billion, or nearly 7 percent. This is the largest ever decrease in the reserves.

This is due to early payment of Russia’s debt to the Paris Club.
Gold and foreign currency reserves are highly liquid financial assets controlled by the central bank and the finance ministry. They consist of monetary gold, special drawing rights, the reserve position in the International Monetary Fund, and foreign currency.

Russia has the world’s fifth largest gold and foreign currency stocks after Japan, with more than $800 billion, China with about $660 billion, Taiwan with more than $250 billion, and South Korea with more than $200 billion.