Business news

MINSK, 5 October (BelTA) - According to the preliminary data, Belarus’ gold and foreign currency reserves totaled $6,926.4 million as of 1 October 2018, if calculated in accordance with methods of the International Monetary Fund, BelTA learned from the Information and PR Department of the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus.

In September 2018, the country’s gold and foreign currency reserves went down by $320 million (up 4.4%) following the August growth by $216.2 million (3.1%).

In September 2018 the National Bank and the government of the Republic of Belarus honored the foreign and domestic obligations in foreign currency in the amount of about $382 million. The country’s gold and foreign exchange reserves also reduced due to the lower cost of the monetary gold.

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

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.