“There are a number of ways that they could use their gold,” Robin Bhar, an analyst at Societe Generale SA, said in the Bloomberg article. “They could use it as collateral for bank loans, or for loans from multi-lateral agencies. They could sell it directly in the market if they want to raise foreign-exchange” reserves, including to get more dollars.
However, some argue that Russia may not be desperate enough to sell-off its gold holdings. Dumping gold reserves are meant as a measure of last resort since the metal helps back their currencies.
“They are probably still accumulating gold and keeping it for a bigger crisis,” George Gero, a precious-metal strategist at RBC Capital Markets, said.
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Max Chen contributed to this article.