BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb. 8
Trend:
Gold and foreign exchange reserves as of late January 2021 in accordance with the preliminary data reached $35.6 billion, practically unchanged from the beginning of the year, Trend reports with reference to the National Bank of Kazakhstan.
At the same time, assets in freely convertible currency increased through the inflow of funds from the Asian Development Bank’s loan in the equivalent of $0.9 billion.
The influence of this factor was minimized by the payment of the external debt in the amount of about $100 million and a decrease in the funds of the second-tier banks in the accounts of the National Bank by almost $500 million.
The outflow of funds of the second-tier banks from accounts in the National Bank is mainly related to the fulfillment of obligations to redeem foreign currency bonds of one of the second-tier banks.
The gold portfolio declined by $0.3 billion, which occurred amid a decline in gold prices since the beginning of the year or from $1,891 through $1,853 per ounce or by 2 percent.
The success in vaccine development and business recovery are among the main reasons for the fall in the price of gold as a defensive asset.