Belarusian gold, forex reserves grow 27% in Jan-Sept
MINSK. Oct 8 (Interfax) - Belarus's gold and foreign exchange reserves, as calculated under International Monetary Fund standards, stood at $3.878 billion on October 1, 2009, up 26.7% from the start of the year, the National Bank said in a statistical report.
The reserves increased 11.7% in September following growth of 9.8% in August.
Foreign-currency deposits at non-resident banks declined 5% to $2.475 billion in the nine months, including an increase of 2.4% in September following a decline of 7.5% in August.
Monetary gold at foreign banks amounted to $736.9 million on October 1, an increase of 100% since the beginning of the year, including 41.1% growth in September.
The reserves included $583.6 million in SDR. Other reserves rose 2.1% in the nine months to $82.2 million.
IMF-definition reserves fell by $1.121 billion, or 26.8%, in 2008 to $3.0611 billion as of January 1, 2009 compared with forecast growth of $280 million. The IMF forecasts that the reserves will increase to $5.2 billion at the end of 2009 and to $8.085 billion at the end of 2010.
Using the country's national standards, the gold and forex reserves rose 14.9% to $4.208 billion on October 1, including 7% growth in September and 8.5% in August.
Foreign-currency deposits at non-resident banks declined 9.4% in the nine months to $2.517 billion on October 1, including an increase of 3.6% in September.
The value of other gold included in reserves declined 12.3% to $169.9 million and the value of other metals fell 60.2% to $72.9 million and gems were down 8.7% to $46.1 million. The total value of precious metals and gems in the national definition rose 28% to $1.026 billion.
Other reserves increased 720% in the nine months to $665.9 million on October 1.
The national-definition reserves were targeted to increase to $5.5 billion at the end of 2008, but instead they declined 26.6% to $3.662 billion at year-end.
The National Bank predicts the reserves will range from $5.87 billion-$7.75 billion on January 1, 2010.