The photo taken on Nov.14, 2006 shows the gold ingots of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York displayed at American Museum of Natural History in New York. (Xinhua/Zhao Peng)

MOSCOW, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) -- The Russian central bank said Friday that its gold reserves rose in September by 1.87 percent to 65.5 million troy ounces (around 2,037 metric tons).

The value of gold in reserves was equal to 77.5 billion U.S. dollars as of Oct. 1, up 0.29 percent from 77.3 billion dollars on Sept. 1.

Russia's gold reserves rose 10.8 percent since the start of the year from 59.1 million troy ounces (about 1,838 metric tons) as of Jan. 1, while their value increased by just 1.1 percent from 76.6 billion dollars.

Russian total gold and foreign exchange reserves were 459.2 billion dollars as of Oct. 1, down from 460.6 billion dollars a month ago, but up from 432.7 billion dollars as of Jan. 1, the bank said.