August 12 (SeeNews) - The foreign exchange (FX) reserves held by Serbia's central bank rose to 12.758 billion euro ($14.276 billion) at the end of July, up by 612.4 million euro on a monthly comparison basis, the National Bank of Serbia (NBS) said on Monday.
The increase in gross FX reserves in July was mostly the result of NBS activities in the interbank foreign exchange market (IFEM), the central bank said in a statement.
The volume of trading on the IFEM in July decreased to 401.7 million euro, down by 94 million euro month-on-month, theNBS said.
The FX reserves held by NBS as at end-July were enough to cover about six months’ worth of imports of goods and services, NBS said.
In July, the dinar appreciated 0.1% against the euro, and the NBS intervened by buying 645 million euro on the interbank market in order to tame excessive daily volatility of the exchange rate.
Net FX reserves (total reserves less banks’ FX balances on account of required reserves and other requirements) amounted to 10.794 billion euro at end-July, up from 10.142 billion euro a month earlier.
($ = 0.893665 euro)