In an attempt to increase returns while containing risks, we reduced our exposure with foreign commercial banks (which were being de-rated), reviewed the investment horizon, invested in cash and near-cash instruments, and increased our holdings in high-yielding currencies even as we moved to include new currencies in our portfolio.
In November 2009, the Bank purchased two metric tons of gold from the IMF, to diversify our portfolio further and mitigate the impact of currency volatility. Subsequently, I also increased our share of investment in fixed-income instruments.