Belarusian gold, FX reserves up 1.6% in March to $8.35 bln

MINSK. April 5 (Interfax) - Belarusian gold and foreign-exchange reserves grew 1.6% or $133.9 million to $8.353 billion during March 2024, the National Bank of Belarus said.

The reserves grew 1.5% or $125.1 million in February but fell 0.4% or $33.9 million in January.

They grew 2.8% or $225.1 million in Q1 2024.

Gold in the reserves grew 8.2% in March and 7.3% in Q1 to $3.844 billion, foreign currency assets fell 4.8% in March after rising 4.6% in February and fell 0.6% in Q1 to $3.139 billion and IMF Special Drawing Rights fell 1.3% in Q1 to $1.37 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.