Bishkek, Nov. 9: In October, Uzbekistan’s gold and foreign exchange reserves increased by another $2 billion, reaching $43.14 billion amid rising gold prices, the Central Bank of Uzbekistan said.
Thus, last month the reserves in foreign currency increased by another $510.8 million – from $8.71 billion to $9.22 billion (in June-July there was a decrease of $1.58 billion due to the purchase of gold).
The physical volume of gold in reserves again slightly decreased by 20 thousand troy ounces (622 kg) – to 12 million troy ounces (373.2 tons).
Despite this, the value of the gold reserve increased by $1.5 billion – from $31.86 billion to another record of $33.36 billion. The reason – in October, gold quotations increased by 2.3%: from 2660.5 to 2721.5 dollars. On Oct. 30, for the first time in history, prices rose above $ 2800 per troy ounce.
S&P estimates that Uzbekistan’s available foreign exchange reserves will shrink until 2027 due to the expected fall in gold prices and the ongoing current account deficit.
The Central Bank’s monetary gold reserves account for more than 80% of the total volume of gold and foreign exchange reserves (today – 77.3%).
Reserves are a kind of “safety cushion” against external shocks, such as sharp changes in the prices of exported goods, international sanctions, global financial crises or fluctuations in foreign exchange markets.
