BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

11/05/2007

Belarus c.bank to expand into yen, yuan

MINSK, May 11 (Reuters) - Belarus's central bank intends to diversify its currency and gold reserves soon to include Japanese yen and is examining the possibility of acquiring reserves in Chinese yuan, the bank's chairman said.

Belarus's currency reserves as of May 1 surpassed $2 billion for the first time and are expected to grow to $3 billion by 2010.

"We will soon resolve the issue of having Japanese yen in our reserves," bank chairman Pyotr Prokopovich told a news conference on Thursday evening.

"We want to expand the scope of our currencies to improve the security and liquidity of our gold and currency reserves."

He said Belarus was conducting talks with China about including yuan in Belarussian reserves, currently held in U.S. dollars, euros and Russian roubles.

"The structure of our reserves is gradually changing in favour of the euro. The share of dollars is slowly declining," he said.

He gave no details on the share of each currency.

"We feel certain that indicators in terms of our currency and gold reserves this year will not only be fulfilled, they will be surpassed," he said.

Source:

http://asia.news.yahoo.com/070511/3/31ogg.html

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