NBM’s reserve assets drop slightly in January

The reserve assets of the National Bank of Moldova (NBM) constituted USD 773 mln as of late January and went down by USD 2.2 mln during the first month of 2007. The regress is due to the payments operated to return the previously contracted loans. The highest share of official reserves – about USD 474 – are deposits kept in other central banks, Bank for International Settlements and IMF, as well as other banks headquartered inside or outside Moldova. Another part of the reserve assets – USD 299 – are securities. Besides the reserves in convertible currency, NBM also keeps USD 7.41 thousand at the IMF. During 2006, the official reserve assets of NBM increased by USD 177 mln. The growth pace in 2007 could be similar with the indexes of 2006, but there are reasons to predict it will be accelerated by the significant loans that will be offered by IMF. In this case it is not excluded that by the end of 2007 the reserve assets of NBM will reach USD 1 bln.