In October Belarus’ gold and foreign exchange reserves rose by $62.1 million if calculated in accordance with methods of the International Monetary Fund. According to preliminary data, the reserves totaled $4,817.1 million as of November 1, the Information and PR Department of the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus reported.
In national terms the volume of the gold and foreign exchange reserves was down by $70.5 million to $5,174.6 million as of November 1. Belarus’ gold and foreign exchange reserves were bolstered thanks to the revenues from selling government bonds nominated in foreign currency by the Finance Ministry and the central bank, foreign currency purchases by the regulator via the Belarusian Currency and Stock Exchange, and also revenues from export duties on oil and oil products.
“Apart from that, the decision of the IMF Executive Board on the inclusion of the Chinese yuan into the Special Drawing Right (SDR) basket on October 1, allowed taking into account this currency in the calculation of the Belarusian gold and forex reserves in the IMF Special Data Dissemination Standard methods”, the central bank said.
The Belarusian government and the National Bank of Belarus honored domestic and foreign commitments in foreign currency in full, which was the main reason affecting the volume of gold and foreign currency reserves, the central bank added. The reduction in the cost of gold on the international precious metals market also affected the volume of gold and foreign currency reserves in the country. (BelTA/Business World Magazine)