According to the Bank’s latest data, the National Bank of Georgia sold USD 627,000,000 in October 2024. The four foreign exchange transactions made immediately before parliamentary elections marked a significant drop in the country‘s reserve of foreign currency, which dropped from USD 4,71 billion to USD 4,08 billion. This is the largest decline in one month in the history NBG.
This decrease was primarily due to the four foreign exchange intervention carried out by NBG during the pre-election phase, including the sale 213 million dollars and the implementations of additional interventions, allegedly via the Bmatch platform. Business Media reported that the decline in sales can be attributed to both direct exchange interventions and sales made via this platform. The detailed statistics of the volume sold [through the Bmatch platform] will be available by November 25.
In August 2023, the foreign exchange reserves of the country stood at 5,44 billion dollars. As has been noted, however, this number has since decreased to 4,08 billion dollars. This represents a drop of 1,36 billion dollars over a period of a little more than a calendar year, putting the reserves below the critical threshold. No country with a BB-rating has reserves this large compared to the volume of payments made abroad. The issue of revising the rating will be on the agenda soon,”- stated Roman Gotsiridze on Facebook, the former President of the National Bank of Georgia.
In a recent interview Arvind Ramakrishnan addressed the current decision of National Bank of Georgia. He said that the reserves at the end of September only covered 2.6 months’ worth of current account payments. This is below the recommended minimum of three months by the International Monetary Fund.
Also read:
* 18/10/2023 – NBG sells additional foreign reserves
* 13/06/2024 – NBG sells more US dollars in one month than in 2023
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