GENEVA, Dec 11: Major oil-exporting countries have been moving away from dollar deposits to accumulate reserves in other currencies including the euro and the Japanese yen, the Bank for International Settlements said on Monday.

Overall dollar-denominated bank deposits by Opec member states decreased by $5.3 billion in the second quarter of 2006, while euro-denominated deposits rose by $2.8 billion and yen deposits by $3.8 billion, the BIS said in its quarterly report.

Although Russian dollar deposits did increase by $5.0 billion, the “bulk” of the $16 billion in deposits from Russian citizens or companies over the second quarter were in euros, the report added.—AFP