Russian National Welfare Fund rose

Gold is a precious metal. It has emotional, cultural and financial value and different people across the globe buy gold for different reasons, often influenced by a range of national socio-cultural factors, local market conditions and wider macro-economic drivers.

The history of gold is long connected with money, but gold relinquished this role in developed economies after the outbreak of the Second World War.

At the end of the war, the Bretton Woods monetary system, a regime of fixed exchange rates, was created. This system broke down in 1971 when the US unilaterally ended its gold standard, which set the convertibility of gold and the dollar to US$35 per ounce.

References to the Gold Standard often refer to two key periods in history:

- The Classical Gold Standard and

- The post Bretton Woods gold-pegged exchange rate system.

Gold has always played an important role in the international monetary system. Gold coins were first struck on the order of King Croesus of Lydia (an area that is now part of Turkey), around 550 BC.

They circulated as currency in many countries before the introduction of paper money.

Once paper money was introduced, currencies still maintained an explicit link to gold.

By the late 19th Century, many of the world’s major currencies were fixed to gold at a set price per ounce, under the ‘Gold Standard’ and this persisted in different forms for about one hundred years.

Russia was always considered one of the richest countries in Gold Reserves.

Recently, Russia's gold and foreign exchange reserves have risen to more than $600 billion.

According to data from the Russian Central Bank, Russia's international reserves grew during the past month of July 2021 by 1.56% (9.258 billion dollars) to reach 601.03 billion dollars.

The reserves of the Russian National Welfare Fund rose last July to 13.757 trillion rubles and reached on August 1 this year 187 billion dollars.

Russia's international reserves consist of gold, foreign exchange and reserves in the Russian National Welfare Fund which are highly liquid foreign assets held by the Russian central bank and government.

Westerners might be surprised to learn that the Russian Ruble has the largest pile of Official gold to fiat currency cash in their financial system.