Tuesday, November 20 2018 13:44

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.