Belarus foreign exchange reserves drop by $97.6 million in August

September 7, BPN. Belarus’ gold and foreign exchange reserves fell by 1.29 percent in August to $7.5 billion on September 1, said the press office of the National Bank of Belarus.

In July, international reserves grew by $55.5 million, an increase of 0.7 percent.

Starting from August, the National Bank has been publishing information about the foreign exchange reserves on its official website without detailing their structure and commenting on fluctuations.

Earlier, Uładzimir Kavałkin, founder of the Košt Urada think tank, told BPN that disclosure of full information would cause panic and mean even a more rapid collapse of the rubel. 

In his opinion, the authorities expect an extremely negative scenario for the fiscal and monetary system, while the finance ministry and the National Bank are likely to disclose what they “think is right” instead of reporting real data. 

“If they don’t publish the information, people won’t worry about what’s going on in the economy,” Kavałkin said. 

Under the bank’s monetary and credit policy guidelines for 2022, Belarus’ international reserves should amount to at least $7 billion on January 1, 2023.