Wednesday, May 10 2017 14:21
Alina Hovhannisyan

Armenian International reserve declined by 7.6% to $2.036 billion in I quarter of 2017

Armenian International reserve declined by 7.6% to $2.036 billion in  I quarter of 2017

ArmInfo. Armenia's gross  international reserves for the I quarter of 2017 decreased by 7.6% to  $ 2.036 billion.

According to Armenian Central Bank, in the reserve structure $  2.035.9 billion is external assets in hard currency, which  experienced a 7.5% quarterly decline. The SDR's share in the IMF was  $ 0.1 million, down from $ 3.5 million at the beginning of the year.  On an annual basis (in the 1st quarter of 2017 by the first quarter  of 2016), gross international reserves increased by 25.2%, due to the  growth of external assets in hard currency by 26.3%, while the share  of SDR in the IMF dropped significantly from $ 13.9 million in the I  quarter of 2016. On a monthly basis, after the January fall in gross  international reserves by 6.2%, in February, the rate slowed down to  2%, with a slight increase of 0.5% in March, due to a similar  increase in foreign assets in hard currency, while the share of SDR  in the IMF declined in 2 times. 

As for comparison, in the first quarter of 2016, the gross  international reserves decreased by 8.4%. In their structure,  external assets in hard currency sank by 9%, while the share of SDR  in the IMF increased almost 5-fold. The annual dynamics at that time  (I quarter of 2016 to the first quarter of 2015) looked as follows:   gross international reserves grew by 9%, foreign assets in hard  currency - by 8.1%, and the share of SDR in the IMF - 20 times.

To recall, Gross international reserves for 2016 increased by 24.2%  to $ 2.204.2 billion.  According to the Central Bank of Armenia, in  the structure of reserves $ 1.579.4 billion is external assets in  hard currency, which have undergone annual growth by 34.4%. The SDR's  share in the IMF was $ 3.5 million, an increase by 21.8% over the  year. The share of bank gold in Armenia's gross international  reserves was zeroed in December 2003.