According to the Central Bank’s data, the regulator has spent about $75 billion in the first eleven months of this year to defend the ruble or about 5% of GDP.
Therefore, the volume of the Central Bank’s foreign currency funds spent on supporting the ruble exchange rate can be compared to twice the amount of Russia’s debt on external bonds ($39.1 billion) and 1.5 times the amount of the country’s sovereign foreign debt ($53.7 billion).
According to data of Russia’s Finance Ministry, the country’s international reserves equaled $416.2 billion as of early December 2014 compared with $511.6 billion as of the same period a year earlier.
Russia also has two oil wealth funds — the National Welfare Fund ($79.9 billion or 5.5% of GDP) and the Reserve Fund (6.1% of GDP).