Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 16
By Nigar Guliyeva – Trend:
Uzbekistan's gold and foreign exchange reserves in 2017 increased by $1.4 billion, the Central Bank of Uzbekistan said in a message Jan. 16.
By the end of 2017, the net gold and foreign exchange reserves amounted to $26.6 billion.
For the first time the volume of gold and foreign currency reserves was officially announced in November 2017.
The first deputy chairman of the Central Bank, Timur Ishmetov, said that their volume had increased by $750 million since the beginning of autumn and amounted to $26 billion.
The Central Bank added that liberalization of monetary policy was one of the most important macroeconomic factors determining the change in monetary policy in the second half of 2017. The taken measures contributed to a stable increase in the average monthly volume of bank transactions in the purchase and sale of foreign currency in September-December 2017 compared to the first half of 2017: purchase by legal entities increased by 60 percent, sales rose by more than four-fold.
Population had the opportunity to sell their foreign exchange funds at exchange offices of banks at market rates.
After the September devaluation, the exchange rate remained at a stable level and fluctuated around 1 percent at 8049-8138 soums per US dollar.