State Oil Fund increases gold reserve by 0.6 tons
By Ayya Lmahamad
The State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan has increased the gold reserve by 0.6 tons since the beginning of 2020, the fund has reported.
As of September 30, the total volume of gold in the investment portfolio of the Fund was 101.8 tons. It should be noted that at the beginning of the 2020, the volume of gold in the investment portfolio of the Fund was 101.2 tons. Thus, the Fund has increased the volume of gold reserves by 0.6 tons.
Currently, investments in gold accounts for 14.4 percent of the Fund’s investment portfolio.
Moreover, Fund’s total investment portfolio amounted to $42.9 billion.
Some 65.2 percent of investment portfolio were directed for fixed income and money market instruments, 14.4 percent for equities, 6 percent for real estate and 14.4 percent for gold.
Likewise, as of September 20, US dollar made 68.4 percent of the Fund’s investment portfolio, Euro 20.5 percent, British pound 5.1 percent, Japanese yen 1.5 percent, Chinese yuan 1.2 percent, Australian dollar 0.6 percent, Turkish lira 0.6 percent, Russian ruble 0.5 percent, other currencies 1.6 percent. In addition, part of Fund’s investment portfolio consist of Azerbaijani manat, in the amount of AZN 293.03 million ($172.3M).
Furthermore, Fund’s assets by September 2020, amounted to $43.2 billion, which is by 0.08 percent less that in the beginning of the 2020. The decrease in assets was due to the fact that Fund’s budget expenditures exceeded budget revenues due to the fall in oil prices on the background of the global economic recession caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Additionally, 35.53 percent of the Fund’s investment portfolio by geographic regions were Asian-Pacific region countries, 29.37 percent European countries, 26.62 percent North America, 1.05 percent Middle East, 1.09 percent Australia and New Zealand and 0.04 percent South America. It should be noted that international financial organizations accounted for 6.3 percent of the Fund’s investment portfolio.
Earlier it was reported that revenues of the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan amounted to AZN 6.5 million ($3.8M), while budget expenditures to AZN 9 million ($5.2M) during the first nine months of 2020.
State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan sold funds in the amount of $606.4 million at foreign currency auctions in September, which is 21 percent more compared to August.
SOFAZ was established in December 1999 by the Presidential Decree and is a sovereign wealth fund of Azerbaijan, which accumulates and preserves the nation's oil and gas revenues for future generations.
The Fund accumulates income from the sale of oil contracts, and in 2003 it started to make transfers to the state budget of Azerbaijan. As for now, SOFAZ contribution to the country’s GDP is over 80 percent.
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Ayya Lmahamad is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @AyyaLmahamad
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