Business news

MINSK, 7 February (BelTA) – According to the preliminary data, Belarus’ gold and foreign exchange reserves totaled $6,477 million as of 1 February 2018, BelTA learned from the Information and PR Department of the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus (NBRB).

In January 2018, the country’s gold and foreign exchange reserves went down by $837.9 million (11.5%). “The January decrease in Belarus’ international reserve assets was driven by the honoring of domestic and foreign commitments in foreign currency by the government and the National Bank worth around $1.4 billion, $835.8 million out of which were used to repay the foreign government bonds,” the NBRB said.

Belarus’ gold and foreign exchange reserves were bolstered thanks to the budget revenues, including revenues from selling government bonds nominated in foreign currency by the central bank and the Finance Ministry, export duties on oil and oil products, and an increased cost of the monetary gold.

In line with the IMF Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS), Belarus’ gold and forex reserves went up by $2.4 billion (up 48.5%) in 2017 to reach $7,315 million.

According to the country’s main monetary guidelines for 2018, the volume of international reserve assets, taking into account the honoring of domestic and foreign commitments in foreign currency should reach at least $6 billion on 1 January 2019.