According to the National Bank of Belarus, the country's international reserve assets, calculated by the standards of the International Monetary Fund, decreased by $319.4 million (7.4%) in February 2011 and amounted to just over $4 billion in March 1, 2011. Thus, foreign exchange reserves (FER) of Belarus declined by 20% (more than $1 billion) since the year's beginning.
The international reserve assets of Belarus accounted for more than $5 billion on January 1, 2011. Gold and currency reserves declined by $687.7 million (13.7%) in January, AFN.
Reserve assets in foreign currencies amounted to $1.2 billion on March 1 in the structure of foreign exchange reserves. They fell by 32.8% ($626.4 million) during January and February. Amounts of monetary gold decreased by $339.1 million (21.2%) from the beginning of the year and totaled $1.2 billion on March 1. Other assets were 5.7% ($54.8 million) less on March 1 than on January 1, which totaled $900.7 million.
Special drawing rights, on the contrary, increased from $567.7 million to $580.9 million.
As Telegraf previously reported, international reserve assets of Belarus, calculated by the IMF standards, fell by $621.8 million (11%) in 2010, despite the fact that monetary policy assumed it to grow by $0.5 — $1.8 billion.
Meanwhile, the Belarusian government expects foreign reserves to grow up to $1.2 billion in 2011. The National Bank believes that the successful achievement of such a measure is dictated by the joint work, undertaken by the government and National Bank for the structural transformation and modernization of the economy to reduce foreign trade deficit.»
