ArmInfo. Armenia's gross international reserves in January- October 2018 declined by 10% - to $ 2.083 billion. In year-over-year terms (October 2018 versus October 2017), this figure decreased by 1.7%.
According to the Central Bank of Armenia, in the structure of reserves, $ 2.081 billion are foreign assets in hard currency, which decreased by 1.7% per year, and in January -October alone - by 9.8%. The share of SDR in the IMF amounted to $ 1.6 million, increasing by 71.6% in y-o-y terms, however in January- October of 2018 decreasing by 77.7%, with the most dramatic decline in July-September.
It is noteworthy that after the improvement in the dynamics of gross international reserves from a 10.8% decline in Q2 to 7.9% growth in Q3, in October the decline resumed - 3.1%. This was accompanied by a similar deterioration in the trend of foreign assets in hard currency from 8.1% growth in Q3 to 3.1% decline in October. The share of SDR in the IMF declined in October by 1.3%, after a decline in Q3 by 70.3%.
To note for comparison that in January-October 2017, gross international reserves decreased by 3.9%. In their structure, external assets in hard currency fell by 3.8%, while the share of SDR in the IMF decreased by 73%. The y-o-y dynamics at that time (October 2017 versus October 2016) looked as follows: gross international reserves increased by 15.2%, while foreign assets grew by 15.6% and SDR share in the IMF decreased by 87.1%. Moreover, after the slowing down of the decreasing dynamics of gross international reserves from 6.9% in the first quarter to 1.8% in the second quarter, this indicator grew by 3.9% in the third quarter of 2017, followed by a 4.2% increase in foreign assets in hard currency with the decline in the share of SDR in the IMF by 87.1%. But in October 2017, the growth of international reserves slowed to 1.2%, with a similar picture of foreign assets in hard currency and a slowdown in the decline in the share of SDR in the IMF to 0.5%. To recall in 2017, gross international reserves of Armenia amounted to $ 2.314 billion. Of these, the lion's share - $ 2.307 billion accounted for external assets in hard currency, and the share of SDR in the IMF was $ 7.2 million. Within a year the gross international reserves grew by 4.5% (versus growth by 24.2% in 2016), foreign assets in hard currency increased by the same amount, while the share of SDR grew 1.6-fold during the year (against a growth of 21.8% in 2016). In quarterly terms, the dynamics was as follows: in the first quarter of 2017, the GIR decreased by 6.9%, while the share of SDR in the IMF declined by 97.1%; in Q2, the decline in gross international reserves slowed to 1.8% with a jump in the share of SDR in the IMF 73-fold; in the Q3, the gross international reserves increased by 3.8%, with almost similar growth in foreign assets in hard currency and a decline in the share of SDR in the IMF by 87.9%; in the Q3, the increase in gross international reserves by 9.5% was accompanied by a similar increase in foreign assets in hard currency, with a jump in SDR share in the IMF 8-fold. The share of bank gold in Armenia's gross international reserves was zeroed in December 2003.