Belarusian gold, FX reserves fall 1.6% in Dec, grow 2.3% in 2023 to $8.1 bln

MINSK. Jan 9 (Interfax) - Belarusian gold and foreign-exchange reserves fell 1.6% or $128.2 million to $8.127 billion during December 2023, the National Bank of Belarus said.

The reserves grew 1.3% or $108.7 million in November and 1.2% or $208.7 million in October.

The reserves grew 2.5% or $197.9 million in January-December.

Gold in the reserves grew 14% in 12M to $3.58 billion, foreign currency assets fell 7.5% to $3.16 billion, IMF Special Drawing Rights rose 1.1% to $1.39 billion and other assets fell 40% to $0.3 million.

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.