DOLLAR FOR DOLLAR: Russia Can Now Pay Off Its Dollar-Based Debt In Cash And At Any Time

by Chris Powell of the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee (GATA)

By Ben Aris
BNE Intellinews, Berlin

Russia’s gross international reserves, including gold, continue to creep upwards and reached $487.1 billion as of March 22 — enough to cover Russia’s external debt dollar for dollar in cash.

In February during his state of the nation speech President Vladimir Putin boasted that for the first time Russia has enough money in its reserves to cover all its external debt with cash.

At the end of the last quarter of 2018 Russia had an external debt of $453.7 billion and the debt has been falling steadily over the 12 months as the government makes use of the windfall from rising oil prices and falling expenditures to pay off more debt early.

Russia already had one of the lowest levels of debt of any major country. While most western countries have debt-to-GDP ratios well above the Maastricht rules-recommended maximum of 60 percent (and some like Italy are well over 100 percent), Russia’s debt-to-GDP ratio has been hovering around 15 percent for years. …

… For the remainder of the report:

www.intellinews.com/russia-can-cover-its-debt-dollar-for-dollar-i…

* * *

Join GATA here:

We are primarily funded by readers. Please subscribe and donate to support us!

Mines and Money Asia
Hong Kong Conference and Exhibition Center
Wan Chai, Hong Kong
Tuesday-Thursday, April 2-4

asia.minesandmoney.com/

* * *

Help keep GATA going:

GATA is a civil rights and educational organization based in the United States and tax-exempt under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Its e-mail dispatches are free, and you can subscribe at:

www.gata.org

To contribute to GATA, please visit:

www.gata.org/node/16

*****

 

Views:

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.