ArmInfo.Armenia's gross international reserves for the first half of 2018 decreased by 13.9% to $ 1.992 billion. Moreover, in the quarter, the recession accelerated: from 3.4% in the first quarter to 10.8% in the II quarter. According to the Central Bank of Armenia, in the structure of reserves, $ 1.296 billion is external assets in hard currency, which experienced a quarter-on-quarter decline of 13.1%. The SDR's share in the IMF was $ 5.5 million, having jumped 9 times in a quarter. During the first half of the year, the share of SDR in the IMF declined by 23.6%, and foreign assets in hard currency - by 43.8%.
On an annual basis (second quarter of 2018 by the second quarter of 2017) gross international reserves fell by 1.2%, due to a drop in external assets in hard currency by 2.8%, while the share of SDR in the IMF dropped significantly - by 24.7%. As a comparison, we note that in the II quarter of 2017 gross international reserves decreased by 1.8%. In their structure, external assets in hard currency sank by 2.1%, while the share of SDR in the IMF jumped 73-fold. The annual dynamics at that time (II quarter of 2017 to the second quarter of 2016) looked as follows: gross international reserves increased by 28.6%, external assets in hard currency - by 28.6%, and SDR share in the IMF - by 28.1% %.
Recall that in 2017, Armenia's gross international reserves increased by 4.5% to $ 2.314 billion, of which the lion's share - $ 2.307 billion - came from external assets in hard currency and the SDR's share in the IMF amounted to $ 7.2 million. In 2017, external assets in hard currency also increased by 4.5%, while the share of SDR in the IMF jumped 1.6 times.
It should be noted that the share of bank gold in the gross international reserves of Armenia was zeroed back in December 2003.