Belarusian gold, foreign currency reserves up by almost 30 pct in 2019

Source: Xinhua | 2020-01-09

As of Jan. 1 this year, Belarusian gold and foreign currency reserves have amounted to 9.39 billion U.S. dollars over the past year, an increase of almost 30 percent, the country's central bank said Wednesday.

According to preliminary data, in December 2019, the gold and foreign currency reserves increased by 234.7 million dollars, or 2.6 percent, the regulator said.

In December 2019, a 500-million-dollar loan from China Development Bank was the main source of the country's increased reserves, the bank said.

This level of gold and foreign exchange reserves is a record high in the history of Belarus's central bank.

In 2018, Belarusian gold and foreign exchange reserves decreased by 2.2 percent to about 7.16 billion dollars.