Moldovan National Bank currency reserves up by 237 million dollars in 2010
The official reserve of the National Bank of Moldova increased by 237.4 million dollars, reaching 1,717,680 million dollars by late 2010, according to data provided by the bank. The figure, the highest recorded at year end, exceeds the authorities' and analysts' expectations.
The increase was due to record-high loans that the International Monetary Fund and other donor states gave to Moldova in 2010. Thus, the reserves hiked by 114.9 million dollars in the third quarter due to a string of loans worth 90.96 million dollars taken from the International Monetary Fund, as well as grants offered by international bodies and donor states to support the Moldovan state budget.
In 2010, the National Bank carried out operations on the Moldovan currency market worth about 100,000 dollars, which is less than in the years before.
The Centre for Economic Policies of the Viitorul Institute for Development and Social Initiatives forecast that the reserves would stand at 1,647 million dollars by late 2010, while the Expert-Grup Independent Analytical Centre put the figure at 1,655 million dollars.
On 31 December 2009, the currency reserves of the National Bank of Moldova amounted to 1,480,250,000 dollars, down from 1,672,240,000 dollars on 31 December 2008.
The historical threshold of 1 billion dollars of official reserves was crossed in 2007, while the historical maximum was reached in 2008, when the reserves exceeded 1,800 million dollars. The subsequent massive intervention of the central bank on the Moldovan market in order to decrease the exchange rate of the Moldovan currency (leu) led to substantial decrease in currency reserves which fell below 1.2 billion dollars in 2009.
Expert-Grup has said that in 2011 the currency reserves may reach a historical maximum of 1,826 million dollars.
Moldpres
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