MOSCOW, Russia — Russia will buy Canadian dollars in the next few months in a bid to diversify the nation’s currency reserves, a senior Central bank official was quoted as saying yesterday.

Russia’s foreign exchange reserves — the world’s third largest — currently stand at US$443.8 billion dollars. US dollars account for 47 per cent of the total, while another 41 per cent is in euros, 10 per cent in British pounds and two per cent in yen.

Alexei Ulyukayev, deputy chairman of the Central Bank, said in comments carried by Russian news agencies that the Canadian dollar’s share will be lower than that of the yen.

Since the global downturn hit Russia last year, officials have spoken strongly in favour of diversifying the country’s oil-dependent economy as well as the structure of its forex reserves.

The Central Bank had previously mentioned plans to buy Canadian and Australian dollars in the near term, but had not specified when that would happen.