Bank Of Russia To Resume Gold Purchases On Domestic Market As West Steps Up Sanctions

The Bank of Russia writes the following on its Telegram channel: "From February 28, 2022, the Bank of Russia resumes the purchase of gold on the domestic precious metals market. The purchase price of gold will be determined daily based on the morning price of the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA Gold Price AM)."

• Note that the leaders of the European Commission, France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States issued a joint statement outlining measures to further isolate Russia from the global financial system. Among others, they committed "to imposing restrictive measures that will prevent the Russian Central Bank from deploying its international reserves in ways that undermine the impact of our sanctions."
• A Biden administration official told the FT that "the action would affect all of the institution’s roughly $630bn in foreign reserves," adding that "without being able to buy the rouble from western financial institutions . . . Putin’s central bank will lose the ability to offset the impact of our sanctions." The official noted that "the rouble will fall even further, inflation will spike and the central bank will be left defenceless."