Armenia`s gross international reserves reach $3.9bln

ArmInfo. Gross international reserves (GIR) of Armenia increased by 19% per annum or $408.1 million by April 2025 (against a decline of 13.3% a year ago), reaching $3.926 billion, approaching a record $4.220 billion in August 2023. In the first quarter of this year alone, GIR increased by 7% or $242 million (against a decline of 8.3% in the first quarter of 2024), and in monthly terms, growth has been observed since February, with an acceleration in pace to a double-digit 16.5% (or $555 million) in March. This is evidenced by the data of the Central Bank of Armenia.

In particular, the double-digit annual growth of GMR in March 2025 was due to the same increase in external assets in foreign currency by 19.1% to $3.924 billion, with a decline in the share of SDR in the IMF by 82.3% to $1.7 million, while a year ago there was a decline in the former by 11% and the latter by 56.4%. It should be noted that the record level of external assets in foreign currency was also recorded in August 2023 - $4.217 billion, and the historical maximum of the share of SDR in the IMF - in August 2021 - $178.2 million.

In the first quarter of 2025, the growth of GMR was due to the  acceleration of the growth rate of external assets in foreign  currency from 3.3% to 6.6% and a sharp slowdown in the decline in the share of SDR in the IMF from 78.5% to 15.2%. In March 2025 alone, the double-digit growth of the GMR came from the acceleration of the growth rate of external assets in foreign currency from 2% to 16.6% and the slowdown in the decline in the share of SDR in the IMF from 86.6% to 71.4%. A year earlier, in March 2024, the dynamics of the GMR was in decline with a slowdown in rates from 5.4% to 2.3%, similar to the trend of external assets in foreign currency -with a slowdown in the decline from 4.3% to 2.1%, while the decline in the share of SDR in the IMF slowed from 74% to 37%.

Armenia's gross international reserves (GIR) increased by 2.3% or $82.4 million in 2024, exceeding $3.684 billion, while in 2023 a decline of 12.4% or $509.9 million was recorded - to $3.602 billion. In particular, external assets in hard currency increased by 2.2% to $3.682 billion, and the share of SDR in the IMF jumped 4 times to $2 million, while in 2023 there was a decline in both the former by 12.3% and the latter by 92%. The share of bank gold in Armenia's GIR was reset to zero back in December 2003.

In June 2025, the IMF Executive Board plans to approve, based on the results of the fifth SBA review, opening up access for Armenia to a stand-by facility of almost $25 million (SDR 18.4 million), bringing the total amount of access to about $149.9 million (SDR 110.4 million) since the Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) was in effect. Prior to this, in mid-December 2024, based on the results of the 4th SBA review, the IMF Executive Board approved the provision of a stand-by facility to Armenia in the amount of SDR 18.4 million (about $24.12 million), bringing the total amount of access then to SDR 92 million (about $120.59 million). The International Monetary Fund approved this three-year precautionary Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) facility for  Armenia in the amount of SDR 128.8 million on December 13, 2022, making available SDR 18.4 million immediately, with the remainder to be disbursed following final reviews of six semi- annual periods.