Belarusian gold, FX reserves up 1.5% in Feb to $8.219 bln

MINSK. March 7 (Interfax) - Belarusian gold and foreign-exchange reserves grew 1.5% or $125.1 million to $8.219 billion during February 2024, the National Bank of Belarus said.

The reserves fell 0.4% or $33.9 million in January and 1.6% or $128.2 million in December.

They grew 1.1% in January-February.

Gold in the reserves fell 0.3% in February and 0.8% in 2M to $3.553 billion, foreign currency assets rose 4.6% in February and 4.4% in 2M to $3.297 billion and IMF Special Drawing Rights fell 1.3% in 2M to $1.369 billion.

The reserves grew 2.5% or $197.9 million to $8.127 billion in 2023. The National Bank forecast gold and foreign exchange reserves would be at least $6 billion at end-2023, taking into account foreign and domestic debt repayments, and plans to keep them at that level at the end of 2024.

The reserves fell 5.9% to $7.93 billion in 2022 after rising 12.8% to $8.425 billion in 2021 and falling 20.5% in 2020.