Russia’s gross international reserves (GIR) have fallen from a high of $581bn in early March to $560.6bn as of March 27 due to the impact of the double whammy of the oil price fall and the stop-shock of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Of that fall, two-thirds was caused by revaluation effects following a c.15% drop in the value of the ruble after oil prices collapsed from $55 per barrel to c.$20-$35 in April. That dragged the ruble down from c.RUB68 in March to c.RUB73-RUB80 in April on the back of extreme volatility in the exchange markets.

“The volume of international reserves of the Russian Federation as of March 27 amounted to $560.6bn and increased over the week by $9.4bn, or 1.7%, due to a positive exchange rate revaluation,” the CBR said in a statement on its website. “As of April 3, the country's international reserves grew by $3.8bn, or 0.7%, to $564.4bn under the predominant influence of a positive revaluation. The revaluation impact on international reserves observed in recent weeks is due to increased volatility of exchange rates and prices of financial assets and precious metals in global markets. Normalisation of the situation in the financial markets will lead to a weakening of the influence of this factor on the size of the international reserves of the Russian Federation.”

Russia's international reserves expanded in January-March 2020 by $5.0bn (versus $18.6bn in the first quarter of 2019) mainly due to the acquisition of foreign currency on the domestic market under the budget rule, according to the CBR.

While the price of oil has tumbled, that has yet to have much of an impact on Russia's reserves, which have dipped but remain largely unaffected so far.