Friday, August 9 2024 13:59

ArmInfo. Armenia's gross international reserves (GIR) decreased by 14.2% per annum or $555 million to $3.354 billion by July 2024, while a year ago an increase of 13.3% or $458.6 million was recorded. Thus, GIR continues to move away from the historical maximum of $4.2 billion recorded in August 2023.

This is evidenced by data from the Central Bank of the Republic of Armenia. Of these, the lion's share - $3.345 billion - falls on external assets in foreign currency, and the share of SDR in the IMF amounted to $7.7 million. According to the regulator's report, on an annual basis (June 2024 to June 2023), external assets in foreign currency decreased by 14.2%, and the share of SDR in the IMF decreased by 13.4%, while a year earlier there was an increase in external assets in foreign currency by 14% and a much more significant decline in the share of SDR in the IMF by 68.7%. In the first half of 2024, GMR decreased by 7% or $247.7 million (against a decline of 5% or $202.6 million in the first half of 2023). This was provoked by a similar decline in external assets in foreign currency by 7.1%, in parallel with which there was a jump in the share of SDR in the IMF by 15.4 times. A year earlier, in the first half of 2023, the dynamics of the components of the GMR were also multidirectional, in particular, then external assets in foreign currency were in decline (5%), and the share of SDR in the IMF showed growth (43.8%).

In Q2 2024, the dynamics of the GMR reached 1.5% growth from an 8.3% decline in Q1, i.e. in absolute terms, this indicator increased by $50.3 million after a decline of $298 million in Q1. This was accompanied by the trend of external assets in hard currency for the reporting quarter going from an 8.5% decline to 1.5% growth, with a reversal of the trend of the SDR share in the IMF in the opposite direction - from an 18-fold growth to a 19.1% decline. A year earlier, in the second quarter of 2023, an improvement in the dynamics of the GMR was also recorded from a 9.4% decline to 5% growth, due to the trend of external assets in hard currency moving from a 9.8% decline to 5.3% growth with a reversal of the trend of the share of SDR in the IMF in the opposite direction - from a 3.5-fold growth to a 59.2% decline.

Moreover, in June 2024 alone, the GMR accelerated in growth from 0.9% to 4.2%, increasing in absolute terms by $136.3 million (against a growth of $160.6 million in June 2023). Similar dynamics were observed for external assets in hard currency - an acceleration of growth from 0.7% in May to 4.6% in June. At the same time, the share of SDR in the IMF, after growing by 94.4% in May, decreased by 58.3% in June. A year earlier, in June 2023, there was also an acceleration in the growth of GMR from 3.1% to 4.3%, supported by a similar acceleration in the growth of external assets in hard currency from 3.3% to 4.4%, with a slowdown in the decline in the share of SDR in the IMF from 45.1% to 26.3%.

Armenia's gross international reserves (GIR) decreased by 12.4% or $510 million in 2023, amounting to $3.602 billion, while in 2022 there was an increase of 27.3% or $882 million, to $4.112 billion. In particular, external assets in foreign currency decreased by 12.3% to $3.601 billion, with a 92% decline in the share of SDR in the IMF to $0.5 million, while in 2022 there was an increase of 28.4% in the former and a decline of 81.3% in the latter. It is worth noting that in 2023, both the GMR and external assets in hard currency reached a new record high in August - $4.220 billion and $4.217 billion, respectively, and the historical maximum of the SDR share in the IMF was recorded two years earlier - $178.2 million in August 2021. The share of bank gold in Armenia's GMR was reset to zero back in December 2003.

In June 2024, the IMF Council, having completed the third review under the stand-by agreement (SBA) with Armenia, opened access to the country 18.4 million SDR (about $24.5 million), bringing the total amount to 73.6 million SDR (about $97.7 million).