In December 2019, Russia cut the volume of investments in U.S. government securities by $1.5 mln to $9.974 bln compared to November, the U.S. Treasury said on Wednesday.
Long-term bonds accounted for $4.27 bln, short-term - $5.7 bln. Before December, the volume of investments by Russia in U.S. government bonds increased for the fourth month in a row.
In November 2019, Russia increased the volume of investments in U.S. government securities compared to October by $794 mln to $11.491 bln, TASS recalls.
In the spring of 2018, Russia began to sharply reduce investment in the U.S. public debt. Thus, in April 2018 it decreased from $96 bln to $48.7 bln, and in May - to $14.9 bln. In August 2019, for the first time since February, Russia increased its investments in U.S. government securities to $9.3 bln.
The head of the department of stock markets and financial engineering of the Faculty of Finance and the Banking Business of RANEPA, former deputy chairman of the Central Bank of Russia Konstantin Korischenko, speaking to Vestnik Kavkaza, noted that it is precisely about the psychological threshold, and not about any significant reduction in investment.
"$1.5 billion is a little more than 1-2% of all foreign exchange reserves. That is, it is significantly less than the volume of operations that are carried out within 1 day. Tomorrow, these investments in U.S. treasuries may exceed $10 billion," the economist explained.
The deputy chairman of the Central Bank of Russia emphasized that U.S. treasuries remain one of the most profitable investments.
