Evgeniy Goryunov on foreign-exchange reserves
Evgeniy Goryunov, Head of the Monetary Policy Department at the Gaidar Institute, explained in a Monocle article, what kind of FXR Russia needs in the new reality.
According to the expert, there are two main reasons, why governments accumulate significant amounts of foreign exchange reserves. The first one is to be able to stabilize the exchange rate if the inflow of currency to the market sharply drops. The second one is to maintain the competitiveness of exporters by undervaluing the real exchange rate.
Goryunov emphasizes that Russian reserves have been collected not only and not so much to ensure the stability of the balance of payments, but also to smooth out oil and gas budget revenues. In his opinion, this reason to accumulate foreign reserves is still relevant, and the size of such a fund may well be impressive: the amount of $600 bn does not appear to be clearly exaggerated.
Monday, 03.02.2025