ArmInfo. The gross international reserves of Armenia for 2019 increased by 25.7%, reaching $ 2.840 billion. This is evidenced by the data of the Central Bank of Armenia. Of these, the lion's share - $ 2.834 billion falls on external assets in FCC (freely convertible currency), and the share of SDR in the IMF amounted to $ 6.2 million. According to the regulator's report, over the year, foreign assets in FCC increased by 25.8%, and the share of SDR - by 3%.
In the Q4 of 2019 alone, gross international reserves grew by 18%, with an increase in FCC at 17.7% and a jump in the share of SDR in the IMF 9-fold. In previous quarters, the dynamics was as follows: in the Q3, international reserves grew by 8.4%, with an increase in foreign assets in FCC by 9% and a decrease in the share of SDR in the IMF by 94.1%; in the Q2, an increase in international reserves by 3.2% was accompanied by a 2.8% increase in FCC and a jump in the share of SDR in the IMF 5.5 fold; In the Q1, the 4.8% decline in international reserves was triggered by a decrease in foreign assets in FCC by 4.6% and the share of SDR in the IMF by 64.7%.
In December 2019, gross international reserves increased by 19.6%, and in their structure almost the same growth was observed for external assets in FCC - by 19.7%, while the share of SDR in the IMF fell by 12.9%.
During 2019, the upward dynamics of the gross international reserves was observed in February-March, June, August-October and December, similar to the periods of growth of foreign assets in FCC, and the share of SDRs in the IMF only jumped in May and October.
To recall in 2018 the gross international reserves of Armenia decreased by 2.4%, while external assets in FCC decreased by 2.3% and the share of SDR in the IMF sagged by 17.3%. For the Q4 of 2018, gross international reserves grew by 5.1%, with an increase in foreign assets in FCC at 4.9% and a jump in the share of SDR in the IMF by 3.7 fold. During 2018, the upward dynamics of the gross international reserves was observed in July-September and November-December, similar to the periods of growth of foreign assets in FCC, and the share of SDRs in the IMF only jumped in April and November.
It should be noted that the share of banking gold in the gross international reserves of Armenia was zeroed back in December 2003.