Serbian c-bank’s FX reserves decline m/m in October

BELGRADE (Serbia), November 15 (SeeNews) – The foreign exchange (FX) reserves held by Serbia’s central bank fell to 16.3 billion euro ($18.7 billion) at the end of October, down by 524.7 million euro on a monthly comparison basis, the National Bank of Serbia (NBS) said.

The October decrease in gross FX reserves is mostly due to is attributable primarily to government net debt repayment, activity aimed at maintaining relative stability in the local FX market and usual activity of banks regarding FX reserve requirements, the central bank said in a statement on Friday.

The volume of trading on the interbank FX market increased to 593.6 million euro in October, up by 15.9 million euro month-on-month, the NBS said.

In October, the dinar remained unchanged against the euro, and the NBS intervened by selling 140 million euro on the interbank market to tame excessive daily volatility of the exchange rate.

Net FX reserves (total reserves less banks’ FX balances on account of required reserves and other requirements) amounted to 13.9 billion euro at end-October, down from 14.246 billion euro in September.

($ = 0.8736 euro)