Gold and foreign currency reserves of Belarus decreased by $900 mln over 3 weeks

• 23.01.2009, 16:20

It has been admitted by officials of the national Bank of Belarus.

According to figures, announced by the first deputy chairman of the National Bank management Pavel Kallaur, gold and foreign currency reserves of Belarus have decreased by about $900 mln since the beginning of 2009.

As we have informed, on January 14 Belarus received the first tranche of the International Monetary Fund loan equal to $788 mln. This money has been credited to gold and foreign currency reserves of the country and used for support of the national currency exchange rate.

As explained by Pavel Kallaur, gold and foreign currency reserves have changed over January because this month is characterized by lower economic activities, and decreased currency earnings. “All this adds extra demand at currency market and decrease of gold and foreign currency reserves volume,” P. Kallaur noted.

Thus, the deputy chairman of the National Bank noted that considering the foreign loans, the volume of gold and foreign currency reserves “basically, remains the same as in the beginning of the year”.

As of January 1, 2009, the volume of gold and foreign reserves of Belarus was $3 billion 61.1 mln as compared to $4 billion 182.2 mln in the beginning of January 2008.

Over the last year international reserve assets (gold and currency reserves) of Belarus evaluated according to the IMF standards, decreased by $1 billion 121.1 mln (26.8%), which includes $714.3 mln fall over December 2008.