Russia has no doubts about the stability of the US currency and Moscow will not make any changes to its dollar-denominated assets. This was stated by Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak explaining that the downgrade of the American rating by S&P's from AAA to AA+ "is a soft adjustment that can be neglected from the point of view of increases in long-term investments".
The country's huge reserves ($535 billion) are concentrated in the Reserve Fund and National Welfare Fund made up of 45% in dollars, 45% in euros and the remaining 10% in pounds. Russia is a top 10 investor in US T-bonds and the third largest holder of gold and foreign reserves in the world.
The Russian deputy minister believes that the US debt market continues to be among the most liquid and reliable and that the rating cut will have greater political consequences in the White House rather than in the pockets of investors holding US bonds. "The appeal has been heard, but it is a signal more to the debtor than to the creditor," added Storchak.
Russia will not change its investment policy. "The main thing is that the reliability of investments does not decrease," concluded the deputy minister. But Russian optimism suggests that yields could also increase. “In 99,9% of cases we don't expect any problems. The US will remain in any case the benchmark.”
