AKIPRESS.COM - Kazakhstan boosted gold reserves for a 29th straight month as Russia and Ukraine maintained holdings, the International Monetary Fund said.

Tajikistan increased assets. Kazakhstan held 196.1 metric tons in February, according to data on the IMF website.

That’s up from 193.5 tons in January, according to IMF data compiled by Bloomberg. Russia, the world’s fifth-biggest holder, kept its reserves at 1,207.7 tons.

Bullion dropped last month by the most since September as investors expected the Federal Reserve would soon move to raise interest rates for the first time since 2006.

Russia failed to buy for a second month after adding gold from April through December. Central banks increased reserves the past five years, a reversal from two decades of selling since the late 1980s.

“We do seem to be in a situation now where central banks are either holding gold or adding in small increments,” Wayne Gordon, an analyst at UBS Group AG in Singapore, said by phone. “It’s not moving the needle too much on a month-on-month basis, that’s more your ETFs and physical buyers,” he said, referring to price influences.

Gold for immediate delivery lost 5.5 percent in February. Inflows into exchange-traded products slowed last month from January while traders have exited bullion for seven straight weeks. Prices climbed 2.1 percent last week after the Fed signaled a slower pace of rate rises in the largest economy.

Kazakhstan’s hoard jumped 33 percent in the past 12 months and more than doubled in the past three years, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Gold for immediate delivery fell 0.1 percent to $1,192.14 an ounce by 10:10 a.m. in London.

Russia had been adding to its holdings even as international sanctions over Ukraine and plunging oil prices led to a collapse in the ruble. The country more than tripled its gold assets since 2005 and holds the most since at least 1993, IMF data compiled by Bloomberg show.

Ukraine’s assets were unchanged at 23.9 tons, according to data on the IMF website and compiled by Bloomberg, while Tajikistan boosted holdings to 9.5 tons from 8.9 tons. Turkey held 510.3 tons from 514.9 tons a month earlier, the data show.