Net foreign assets of Belarusian commercial banks amounted to minus $5.353 billion as of August 1, down by 14.9% compared to the level of January 1, the National Bank of Belarus said in a statistical report.
Gross foreign assets of commercial banks were down by 26.7% in January-July to $1.299 billion, while foreign liabilities of banks grew by 3.4% to $6.652 billion as of August 1.
Net foreign assets placed in hard currency amounted to minus $4.831 billion as of August 1 (a decline of $4.401 billion since January 1), while soft currency assets were at the equivalent of minus $522.3 million (minus $256.3 million).
In 2015, Belarusian banks’ net foreign assets decreased by 24.4% to minus $4.657 billion as of January 1, 2016 from minus $6.163 billion as of January 1, 2015. (Prime-TASS/Business World Magazine)