Over the past two years, Russia has led the world in adding gold to her central bank reserves, ahead of the People’s Bank of China, the central bank that has added the second largest of amount of gold.

The Central Bank of Russia added a record 208 tons of gold to reserves in 2015. Last year Russia suffered financially as international sanctions and plummeting oil prices took their toll on the rouble and the inflation rate reached double digits. According to the World Bank, oil is by far Russia’s largest export and represents about 15-20% of Russia’s GDP and the majority of government revenues. 2016 has started off better for Russia. The price of oil and gold have increased significantly in 2016 and have helped Russia improve its financial situation and reserves.

The pace of Russia’s gold purchases has remained relatively steady over the past two years. In May, Russia added ‘just’ 100,000 ounces (approximately 3 tons) to her reserves, the lowest amount that Russia had added since May 2015. Also in May, the Chinese central bank announced that it had added no gold to its reserves. The cessation of the People’s Bank of China’s gold purchases and the relatively small amount of gold added by the Central Bank of Russia in May, caused some gold market observers to suspect that both central banks were winding down their gold purchases, perhaps in reaction to the increasing price of gold.

Earlier this month, the People’s Bank of China announced that it had added 480,000 ounces (approximately 15 tons) of gold to her reserves in June.

Despite the weakness in the Russian economy, the Russian Central Bank has bolstered its foreign reserves from about $350 billion a year ago to over $390 billion at the end of June 2016. The Russian Central Bank has a stated goal of increasing reserves to about $500 billion in the coming years.

As of June 30 2016, gold constituted about 13% of the Central Bank of Russia’s $392 billion reserves with her gold hoard valued at approximately $51 billion.