Georgia's international reserves grow by third in Jan-Sept 2026, exceed $8 bln

TBILISI. Oct 12 (Interfax) - Georgia's international reserves amounted to a record $8.17 billion at the end of September 2026 compared to $6.16 billion as of December 31, 2025, according to the reporting of the National Bank of Georgia (NBG).

The country's reserves have grown 32.6% (by $2 billion) since the beginning of the year. Reserves increased 14.7% in Q3 after growing 12.7% in Q2 and 2.6% in Q1.

Within the structure of international reserves, foreign currency assets amounted to $6.65 billion at the end of September, up 1.4-fold in 9M, including 18% over Q3.

The value of monetary gold in the reserves on the reporting date equaled $1.05 billion, up 5% compared to the figure at the end of last year. The value of gold grew 4% in Q3 after declining 4.7% in Q2 amid volatility in world prices for it. As reported, the NBG bought gold bars worth $100 million in June.

The International Monetary Fund's (IMF) special drawing rights (SDR) exceeded $470 million within the reserves at the end of September.

At the end of June, IMF experts said in a working note that the NBG's international reserves need to be strengthened further, although they reached 100% of the reserve adequacy metric (ARA) set by the fund after several years of deficit. According to NBG data, the indicator was 128.7% at the end of September.

Georgia's international reserves grew 38% in 2025 to $6.2 billion after declining 11.2% in 2024 and growing 3% in 2023.

In September, Georgia's largest investment bank Galt & Taggart raised its forecast for the level of NBG reserves by the end of this year to $8.5 billion from $8 billion.