ArmInfo. Gross international reserves (GIR) of Armenia by May 2025 increased by 23% per annum or by $727.4 million (against a decline of 12.3% or by $448.5 million a year ago), reaching $3.916 billion, still behind the record $4.220 billion in August 2023.
In just 4 months of this year, GIR increased by 6.3% or by $231.3 million (against a decline of 11.8% or by $413.7 million in 4 months of 2024). Moreover, in monthly terms, April was marked by a decline of 0.3% (or $10.5 million), which was preceded by an acceleration of growth in February-March from 0.8% to a double-digit 16.5% (or $554.7 million). This is evidenced by the data of the Central Bank of the Republic of Armenia.
In particular, the double-digit annual growth of GMR in April 2025 was due to an almost identical increase in external assets in hard currency by 21.3% to $3.856 billion, with a jump in the share of SDR in the IMF by 6.4 times to $60.1 million, while a year ago there was a decline in the former by 12.1% and the latter by 56.7%. 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 SDR share in the IMF - in August 2021 - $178.2 million.
Over the 4 months of 2025, the growth of the GMR was due to a reversal in the dynamics of external assets in hard currency from an 11.8% decline towards a 4.7% growth and an acceleration of the high growth rates of the SDR share in the IMF from 18 times to 30 times. At the same time, in April 2025 alone, the GMR decreased due to a deterioration in the trend of external assets in hard currency from a 16.6% growth to a 1.7% decline, in parallel with which there was an improvement in the dynamics of the SDR share in the IMF from a 71.4% decline to a 35-fold growth. A year earlier, in April 2024, the dynamics of the GMR was also in decline, with an acceleration in rates from 2.3% to 3.5%, similar to the trend of external assets in hard currency - with an acceleration in the decline from 2.1% to 3.5%, with a sharp slowdown in the decline in the share of SDR in the IMF from 37% to 0.1%.
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.
