Baku, Azerbaijan, July 12
By Fakhri Vakilov-Trend:
Uzbekistan will move to investing in sovereign bonds of other countries and reduce the share of gold in stocks, Trend reports citing Bloomberg.
“We want to buy US treasury bills and the debt obligations of other countries, including China. The share of gold is about 50 percent, but in the future it may be lower,” Chairman of the Central Bank of Uzbekistan Mamariso Nurmuratov said.
Uzbekistan currently scoops up all the gold produced locally and its holdings have been increasing in recent years. The Central Bank states that on June 1, gold and foreign exchange reserves amounted to $25.8 billion ($ -557 million since the beginning of the year).
Nurmuratov’s reform plan envisages a shift to investing in the sovereign debt of other nations and a reduced share for the metal in the reserves.
"The share of gold will be less, because the volume of foreign exchange reserves will grow, and we will be selling more gold," the head of the Central Bank said.
Nurmuratov stressed that, in four to five years, Uzbek producers should be able to sell directly to the global market. For now, the central bank buys gold produced locally for soum and sells dollars in the currency market to offset the impact of purchases that can be about $350 million per month.
“We’re not supporting the exchange rate of soums, not trying to smooth out fluctuations,” Nurmuratov added. “Our participation in the market is not an intervention in support of the currency, but compensation for the purchase of gold.”
This year, the soum has decreased by 2 percent. The head of the Central Bank called the increased volatility "a necessary phenomenon, part of a normal, healthy process."
($1 = 8592.55 soums on July 12)
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