Belarus's international reserves continue to decline in Oct 2026 due to gold price volatility

MINSK. Nov 5 (Interfax) - Belarus's gold and foreign exchange reserves stood at $14.53 billion as of November 1, 2026, compared with $14.42 billion at the start of the year, the National Bank of Belarus (NBB) said.

The country's gold and foreign exchange reserves therefore increased by $110 million or 0.8% in January-October.

Belarus's reserves declined 0.7% ($100 million) in October after a 4% ($609 million) decrease in September and a 7.4% ($1.05 billion) increase in August. The National Bank said that fluctuations in the level of reserves in August-October were mainly related to volatility in gold prices on international financial markets. Gold accounts for almost 55% of the structure of Belarus's gold and foreign exchange reserves.

The value of monetary gold in the reserves at the start of November totaled $6.78 billion, down 9.2% in 10M. In October, the value equivalent of gold decreased 6.4% after an 8.5% decline in September and a 13.3% increase in August.

Foreign exchange reserves within the gold and foreign exchange reserves have grown 9.7% since the start of the year to $6.08 billion, including 1.5% in October after growth of 1.3% in September and 2.9% in August.

Special drawing rights (SDR) of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) account for $1.4 billion of the reserves.

Belarus's gold and foreign exchange reserves increased 1.6-fold in 2025 after growing 9.8% in 2024 and declining 2.5% in 2023 and 5.9% in 2022.

In accordance with the National Bank's target forecast, gold and foreign exchange reserves should total at least $9.2 billion at the end of 2026, taking into account upcoming external public debt payments. According to the NBB target forecast, the size of the gold and foreign exchange reserves is set at no less than $12.8 billion at the end of 2027.