| Azerbaijan’s State Oil Fund, known as Sofaz, expanded its assets 0.6 percent to $34.3 billion as of April 1 from the end of last year. Sofaz’s gold holdings have increased to 18.4 metric tons by the end of the first quarter, according to an e-mailed statement today from the fund, which was established in 1999 in Baku, the Azeri capital, to manage the Caspian Sea nation’s income from the sale of oil and natural gas.
The fund started investing in gold, as well as in the Australian dollar, Russian ruble, Turkish lira and real estate last year to diversify holdings. It plans to increase its gold reserves to 30 tons by the end of the year...............................................Full Article: Source
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