ArmInfo. The gross international reserves of Armenia decreased in the Q1 of 2020 by 9.4% or $ 267.6 million, amounting to $ 2.582 billion. This is evidenced by the data of the Central Bank of Armenia. Of these, the lion's share - $ 2.579 billion falls on external assets in hard currency, and the share of SDR in the IMF amounted to $ 2.7 million.
According to the regulator's report, for the Q1 of this year foreign assets in hard currency decreased by 9.3%, and the share of SDR in the IMF decreased by 55.7%. Moreover, on a monthly basis during the reporting quarter, the decline in gross international reserves was recorded at the highest rate in January (6.3%). However, the y-o-y dynamics (March 2020 to March 2019) turned out to be upward: gross international reserves increased by 19.9% or by $ 427.8 million, with an increase in foreign assets in hard currency by 19.8% and an increase in the share of SDR in the IMF by 29.5%.
In March 2020, gross international reserves accelerated the decline from 0.5% to 2.9%, and in their structure an almost similar deepening of the decline was observed for external assets in hard currency - from 0.4% to 2.8%, while the decline in the share of SDR accelerated in the IMF from 20.5% to 32.8%, while a year earlier in the same month, international reserves grew by 3.9% with the same increase in foreign assets in foreign currency and a decrease in the share of SDR in the IMF by 39.5%. As a comparison, we note that a year earlier, in the Q1 of 2019, the dynamics of the gross international reserves was also downward: external assets in hard currency decreased by 4.5%, the share of SDRs in the IMF decreased by 64.7%, which ultimately reduced the gross international reserves by 4.7% At the same time, a downward trend was observed in y-o-y terms (March 2019 to March 2018): gross international reserves decreased by 3.6% due to the same decline in foreign assets in hard currency, while the share of SDR in the IMF jumped 3.8-fold. And the monthly dynamics of gross international reserves in the Q1 of 2019 recorded a decline in January (11.7%), after which the upward trend in February and March (4% each) almost restored the previous level of reserves.
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 in the IMF jumped in May and October alone. It should be noted that the share of banking gold in the gross international reserves of Armenia was reset in December 2003.
