The official reserve assets at end-November totaled US$4.274 billion, down US$58.91 million compared with October 31, when these came to US$4.333 billion, IPN reports, quoting the National Bank of Moldova.
The decline was due to the net interventions on the foreign exchange market to sell foreign currencies totaling US$175.18 million, to external debt service payments of US$21.01 million and payments of US$11.33 million made by the Ministry of Finance. The situation was also influenced by the net outflows from the account of the Office for the Management of External Assistance Programs totaling US$2.73 million and the net outflows related to the required foreign currency reserve ratio of licensed banks, to the value of US$0.48 million. Other net outflows came to US$0.02 million.
Among the factors that influenced the rise in the official reserve assets were the appreciation of the exchange rates of the component currencies of the foreign exchange reserves against the US dollar ($60.28m), the budget support transferred to the Ministry of Finance ($41.92m), grants for investment projects transferred to Ministry of Finance ($24.63m), including by the EIB for road updates ($23.37m), and the net result of the swap currency operations on the domestic exchange market ($15.05m).
