The Central Bank of Uzbekistan has begun to review the strategy for managing gold and foreign exchange reserves, announced at a press conference on July 21 the governor of the Central Bank Mamarizo Nurmuratov.
In February 2019, the Bank announced plans to gradually reduce the share of gold in its gold and foreign reserves and buy reliable government bonds of countries, including the U.S. treasury bonds.
“Yes, indeed we have started this process. Now, with the help of the World Bank program, a certain part of the reserves, I won’t give numbers, we have begun to use for the purchase of the U.S. securities and highly liquid securities with an AAA rating, the governor of the Central Bank said.
According to him, the increase in the interest rate to 1.5-1.75% by the US Federal Reserve System, which performs the functions of the Central Bank, led to an increase in rates on deposits in U.S. banks to 3.5-4%.
“The fall of indices in the US stock market led to the fact that the yield received from deposits approached the yield received in the stock market,” he said, indicating that the Central Bank of Uzbekistan will proceed from this situation when managing gold and foreign exchange reserves.
The deputy governor of the Central Bank, Behzod Khamraev, told that employees were still being trained, experience and practice are being studied together with the World Bank.
