Russia?s gold and foreign currency reserves were $201.7 billion as of March 10, the External and Public Relations Department of the Central Bank of Russia reported. On March 3 the reserves stood at $197.9 billion. The gold and foreign currency reserves have been rising since November 2005, due to the acquisition of US dollars by the Central Bank of Russia. Russia has the world?s fifth largest gold and foreign currency stocks after Japan, China, Taiwan, and South Korea, which has about $210 billion. Gold and foreign currency reserves are highly liquid financial assets controlled by the Central Bank and the Finance Ministry. They consist of monetary gold, special drawing rights, the reserve position in the International Monetary Fund, and foreign currency.