These data indicate that the replenishment of foreign exchange reserves at the expense of external funds does not keep pace with the need to use them to fulfill external debt service obligations.
Thus, since the beginning of the year, foreign exchange reserves have decreased by 84 million euros. The decrease in reserves was also affected by the appreciation of the Euro – by 321 million, NBM’s interventions to sell foreign currency – by 145 million.
In September, according to the National Bank, the official reserve assets amounted to 5,163.69 million euros, slightly increasing (by 32.19 million euros) compared to the situation at the end of August. The net inflow of funds was realized due to the fact that the government received loans and grants worth 31.5 million euros. This includes €18.9 million from the European Commission through the mechanism of reforms and economic growth to support the budget and €12.6 million for investment projects. Some other operations of the National Bank for the management of foreign exchange funds also provided additional revenues in excess of 38 million euros.
At the same time, foreign exchange reserves amounting to €19.4 million were spent on servicing foreign debt, while the regulator’s trade interventions amounted to €4 million from reserve funds in September. The decrease in foreign exchange reserves was also affected by the strengthening of the dollar (EUR 9.3 million) and some other foreign exchange transactions.
