BELGRADE (Serbia), December 16 (SeeNews) – Serbia’s foreign exchange reserves rose by 4.7% month-on-month to 11.329 billion euro ($17.056 billion) in November, the central bank, NBS, said on Wednesday.
The foreign exchange reserves held by NBS rose 3.0% month-on-month to 10.031 billion euro in November helped by commercial banks’ allocation of 143.8 million euro to their mandatory foreign exchange reserves, NBS said in a statement. Foreign exchange reserves held by the 34 commercial banks operating in Serbia grew 17.3% to 1.298 billion euro, the statement added.
Last month the bank cut to 20% from 25% the share of mandatory reserves on euro deposits that commercial banks have to maintain in Serbian dinars, aiming to improve the dinar liquidity of the banking system.
The central bank said it paid 5.5 million euro from its reserves to foreign creditors in November.
Serbia’s foreign exchange reserves totalled 9.794 billion euro at the end of November 2008.
Serbia’s foreign exchange reserves (in billions of euro):
|
End-November |
End-October |
TOTAL |
11.329 |
10.799 |
Central bank |
10.031 |
9.726 |
Commercial banks |
1.298 |
1.073 |
($=0.6878 euro)