MOSCOW, May 7, (TASS) - The Bank of Russia increased the share of yuan-denominated assets from 2.8% to 14.2% and significantly reduced the share of asserts in dollars from 45.8% to 22.7%, the regulator says in its report released on Tuesday.

The Central Bank also reduced the share of pounds sterling from 8.3% to 6%. The share of euro rose from 21.7% to 31.7%.

The share of gold added 0.9 percentage point and reached 18.1% as of 2018 year-end, the Bank of Russia says.

The value of assets of the Central Bank held in foreign currency and gold surged by $36.1 bln in 2018, the regulator reports. “The key driver of their growth was transactions on foreign currency purchases on the domestic forex market, made by the Bank of Russia in connection with purchases of foreign exchange from it by the Federal Treasury within the fiscal rule framework. Deals of gold acquisition from the Russian credit institutions was another driver of assets volume growth,” the regulator reports.