ArmInfo. Armenia's gross international reserves (GIR) increased by 21% per annum or $693.2 million to $4.047 billion by July 2025, while a year ago a decline of 14.2% or $555 million was recorded. Thus, GIR began to approach 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 - $4.045 billion - falls on external assets in foreign currency, and the share of SDR in the IMF amounted to $1.7 million. According to the regulator's report, in annual terms (June 2025 to June 2024), external assets in foreign currency increased by 21%, and the share of SDR in the IMF decreased by 77.3%, while a year earlier both indicators were in decline - by 14.2% and 13.4%, respectively.
In the first half of 2025, GMR increased by 10% or by $363.2 million (against a decline of 7% or by $247.7 million in the first half of 2024). This was provoked by a similar growth in external assets in foreign currency by 10%, in parallel with which there was a decline in the share of SDR in the IMF by 12.1%. A year earlier, in the first half of 2024, the dynamics of the GMR components were also multidirectional, but then external assets in foreign currency were in decline (7.1%), while the share of SDR in the IMF demonstrated significant growth (by 15.4 times).
For the second quarter of 2025, the dynamics of GMR remained in growth with a slowdown in rates from 6.6% to 3.1%, i.e. in absolute terms, this indicator increased by $121.3 million after growing by $241.9 million in the first quarter. This was accompanied by the same slowdown in the growth of external assets in foreign currency from 6.6% to 3.1%, with a reversal of the trend in the share of SDR in the IMF in the opposite direction - from a 15.2% decline towards 3.6% growth. A year earlier, in the second quarter of 2024, an improvement in the dynamics of the GMR was recorded from an 8.3% decline to a 1.5% growth, due to the same reversal of the trend of external assets in foreign currency from an 8.5% decline towards a 1.5% growth with a deterioration in the trend of the share of SDR in the IMF from an 18-fold growth to a 19.1% decline.
Moreover, in June 2025 alone, the GMR went from a 0.5% decline to a 4% growth, increasing in absolute terms by $150.8 million. Moreover, external assets in hard currency accelerated in growth from 0.5% in May to 4.4% in June. At the same time, the share of SDR in the IMF lingered in decline with an acceleration in rates from 66.6% in May to 91.3% in June.
A year earlier, in June 2024, there was an acceleration in the growth of GMR from 0.9% to 4.2% (or by $136.3 million), supported by a similar acceleration in the growth of external assets in hard currency from 0.7% to 4.6%, with a deterioration in the trend of the share of SDR in the IMF from 94.4% growth to 58.3% decline.
That in June 2025, the IMF Executive Board, following the fifth SBA review, approved opening up a stand- by facility for Armenia in the amount of almost $26.1 million (SDR 18.4 million), bringing the total amount of access to about $156.9 million (SDR 110.4 million) since the Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) was in effect. Prior to this, in mid-December 2024, the IMF Executive Board, following the fourth SBA review, approved opening up a stand-by facility for Armenia in the amount of SDR 18.4 million (about $24.12 million), bringing the total amount of access 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.
