Russia Becomes 4th Biggest Forex Holder as United States Falls to 14th Place

Russia has become the fourth largest forex reserve holder in the world with over $540 billion of holdings as calculated by RIA Novosti.

Russia Moving Up Forex Ranks

Russia Today reported on Saturday (November 26, 2022) that Russia’s Central Bank data shows the country’s holdings surpassing $540 billion in foreign exchange reserves in the first 9 months of the year. These include holdings frozen by the west due to Ukraine-related sanctions.

Russia forex holdings
Image by Alex Volodsky from Pixabay

In jumping up to the fourth place among countries with top forex holdings, Russia replaced India that had $532 billion of holdings by the end of September. The top 3 positions in term of forex reserves are occupied by China, Japan, and Switzerland with $3.193 trillion, $1.238 trillion, and $892 billion in assets respectively. The United States ranked number 12, followed by France at 13 and Italy at 14.

At the time of this posting, WikiZero shows Russia at Number 4 in the latest list of countries with most forex reserves; its holdings amounting to $568 billion. The United States is at number 14 with $229 billion.

West’s Strategy to Hurt Russian Oil Exports

Amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict, the western alliance of US-NATO has engaged in efforts to economically hurt Russia via sanctions, particularly targeting Russian oil/energy exports. Business Standard explained on Friday (November 25, 2022) how the west is trying to cap Russian oil price in order to limit Russia’s oil sales while European Union (EU) is set to impose a boycott of most Russian oil shipped by the sea. The AP post wrote:

The twin measures could have an uncertain effect on the price of oil as worries over lost supply through the boycott compete with fears about lower demand from a slowing global economy.

Two of the world’s biggest economies – China and India – are not likely to follow west’s Russian oil price cap as they have shown political independence from the anti-Russian US-NATO alliance. In case of a price cap not acceptable to Russia, it is expected that Russia will cut all oil supplies to the countries that obey by west’s price cap.

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Ernest Dempsey

Ernest Dempsey is a writer, editor, blogger, and journalist based in Orlando, FL. He runs a popular blog Word Matters! and edits the journal and its blog Recovering the Self. Dempsey is a skeptic, vegetarian, and advocate for animal and human rights.