ArmInfo.In January-February 2020 the gross international reserves of Armenia decreased by 6.4%, amounting to $ 2.659 billion. This is evidenced by the data of the Central Bank of Armenia. The lion's share of these - $ 2.655 billion, are foreign assets in hard currency, and the share of SDR in the IMF amounted to $ 4.1 million. According to the regulator's report, foreign assets in hard currency for the reporting two months decreased by 6.3%, and the share of SDR in the IMF decreased by 33.9%.
However, the y-o-y dynamics (February 2020 to February 2019) turned out to be upward: Gross international reserves increased by 28.2%, with a similar increase in foreign assets in foreign currency and an increase in the share of SDR in the IMF by 16.6%. In February 2020 alone, gross international reserves decreased by 0.5%, after the January decline by 5.9%. Moreover, in their structure, a nearly similar decline was observed in external assets in hard currency - in January by 0.4% versus January negative 5.9%, while the SDR share in the IMF accelerated to decline to 20.5% from January 16.8%.
To note, for comparison, that a year earlier, in January-February 2019, the dynamics of the gross international reserves also turned downward: external assets in foreign currency were down 8.1%, the share of SDRs in the IMF decreased by 41.6%, which ultimately reduced the gross international reserves by 8.2% At the same time, a downward trend was observed in y-o-y terms (February 2019 to February 2018): Gross international reserves declined by 9% due to a decrease in foreign assets in foreign currency by 9.1%, while the share of SDR in the IMF jumped 6.2-fold.
To recall, in 2019 the gross international reserves of Armenia increased by 25.7%, with the growth of foreign assets in hard currency by 25.8% and the share of SDR in the IMF by 3%. For the Q4 of 2019, gross international reserves grew by 18%, with an increase in foreign assets in foreign currency at 17.7% and a jump in the share of SDR in the IMF by 9-fold. 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 hard currency, and the share of SDRs jumped in May and October alone.
It should be noted that the share of banking gold in the gross international reserves of Armenia was zeroed back in December 2003.
