Wednesday, August 2 2017 12:11
Karina Melikyan

Central Bank of Armenia: International reserves of Armenia decreased by 8.5% in the first half of 2017 to $ 2.017 billion

Central Bank of Armenia: International reserves of Armenia decreased  by 8.5% in the first half of 2017 to $ 2.017 billion

ArmInfo.Armenia's gross  international reserves for the first half of 2017 decreased by 8.5%  to $ 2.017 billion. Moreover, in the quarterly section, the  diminishing dynamics of reserves slowed from 6.9% in the first  quarter to 1.8% in the second quarter. In the annual section this  indicator increased by 28.6%.

According to the Central Bank of Armenia, in the structure of  reserves $ 2.009 billion is external assets in hard currency, which  increased by 28.6% year-on-year, but only for the first half of the  year, sank by 8.7%.  The SDR's share in the IMF was $ 7.3 million,  jumping twice as much, only in the first half of the year - by 28.7%.

On a monthly basis, after the January decline in gross international  reserves by 6.2%, in February, the rate slowed down to 2%, with a  slight increase of 0.5% in March, followed by a 5.5% decline in April  with a yield of May by 2.2% growth and a slowdown to 1.7% in June. In  their structure, the share of SDR in the IMF sank during the first  quarter from $ 1 million to $ 0.1 million, jumped sharply in April to  $ 9.7 million, then decreased in May by 20.1%, slowing down to 6.1%  in June.

As a comparison, we note that in the first half of 2016 gross  international reserves decreased by 11.7%. In their structure,  external assets in hard currency sank by 11.9%, while the share of  SDR in the IMF increased by 98.3%. The annual dynamics at that time  (June 2016 to June 2015) looked as follows: gross international  reserves grew by 1.4%, external assets in hard currency decreased by  4.5%, and the share of SDR in the IMF jumped 5.7 times.

Recall that in 2016, Armenia's gross international reserves increased  by 24.2% to $ 2.204.1 billion, due to a similar increase in foreign  assets in hard currency - up to $ 2.200.6 billion. The SDR's share in  the IMF was $ 3.5 million, Year on 21,8%. Prior to this, in 2015,  gross international reserves increased by 19.2%, due to an increase  in external assets in hard currency by 19.5%, with a decline in the  share of SDR in the IMF more than 2 times. It should be noted that  the share of bank gold in Armenia's gross international reserves was  nullified in December 2003.