BELGRADE (Serbia), November 16 (SeeNews) – Serbia’s foreign exchange reserves rose by 1.1% month-on-month to 10.799 billion euro ($16.152 billion) in October, the central bank, NBS, said on Monday.
The foreign exchange reserves held by NBS rose 2.1% month-on-month to 9.726 billion euro in October due to the commercial banks’ allocation of 165.5 million euro to their mandatory foreign exchange reserves, NBS said in a statement. Foreign exchange reserves held by the 34 commercial banks operating in Serbia fell 7.5% to 1.073 billion euro, the statement added.
Last month the central bank cut to 25% from 30 % the share of mandatory reserves on euro deposits that commercial banks have to maintain in Serbian dinars from October 18 until November 17, aiming to boost the liquidity of the country’s banking system. Last week NBS cut that share further, to 20%, as of November 18.
The central bank said it paid 16.2 million euro from its reserves to foreign creditors in October. Serbia’s foreign exchange reserves totalled 10.683 billion euro at the end of August and 10.051 billion euro at the end of September 2008.
Serbia’s foreign exchange reserves (in billions of euro):
|
End-October |
End-September |
TOTAL |
10.799 |
10.683 |
Central bank |
9.726 |
9.523 |
Commercial banks |
1.073 |
1.160 |
($=0.6682 euro)