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Belarus' international reserves said to have shrunk by $157 million in October

Belarus' gold and foreign exchange reserves decreased by $157 million, or 2.6 percent, in October to $5,827.8 million, according to the National Bank of Belarus (NBB), BelaPAN said.

However, as of November 1, the reserves were $175.3 million, or 3.1 percent, larger than at the beginning of the year.

The calculations were reportedly made according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF)'s Special Data Dissemination Standard.

The foreign exchange reserves decreased in October by $407.7 million, or 11.7 percent, to $3,064.5 million compared with $2,519.9 million at the beginning of the year.
The monetary gold reserves increased by $245.3 million, or 26.3 percent, to $1,179.2 million as of November 1 against $821.1 million on January 1.

Other assets in the international reserves totaled $1,004.6 million, a 42-percent decrease from $1,733.1 million at the beginning of the year.

The reserves were replenished through IMF loans, the sell of a stake in gas supply company Beltranshaz, the placement of Eurobonds and the National Bank's transactions in the domestic market, the NBB said.

In particular, Belarus received $625 million from Russia's Gazprom in February for a stake in Beltranshaz. In March, the IMF transferred $670 million to Belarus in the last tranche of its stand-by loan. In August, Belarus raised $1 billion through the first-ever placement of its Eurobonds.

Belarus’ international reserves are to increase this year by between $500 million and $1,830 million, according to the government's 2010 Monetary Policy Guidelines.

Pyotr Prakapovich, head of the National Bank, said in a report that it was necessary to work more actively to increase Belarus' gold and foreign exchange reserves to at least $10 billion by the end of the year.

The reserves increased by more than $2.5 billion in 2009 to $5,652.5 million, according to the National Bank. The increase occurred largely because of more than $3,760 million that Belarus received in loans from international financial institutions.