Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

The volume of gold reserves of Kyrgyzstan decreased by $22 million this year, deputy chairman of the Kyrgyz National Bank Zair Chokoyev was quoted as saying by the Kyrgyz Telegraph Agency on Monday.

Chokoyev also said that the gross international reserves currently stand at $2.44 billion.

As of December 31, 2012, the volume of the gold reserves of Kyrgyzstan made up $2.66 billion. In 2012, the figure grew 12.7 percent or by $232.1 million.

Representative of the Kyrgyz National Bank Raushan Seitkasymova said that in 2012, the main factors stipulating the increase of the international reserves were the revenues of the currency funds from donor countries, purchase of gold in the domestic markets of Kyrgyzstan as well as the income received from the management of international resources.

As of late 2012, gold reserves comprised 7.9 percent of the gross volume of international reserves, Seitkasymova said, adding that the currency package, which includes currencies of the U.S, the Euro zone, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Switzerland, Japan, China, Russia and Singapore, made up 83.1 percent.

The Kyrgyz National Bank's Chokoyev also said that the export of gold in Kyrgyzstan has decreased by nearly 50 percent or about $48.3 million. The decrease of the gold export negatively affected the overall export indicators.

According to the data of the Kyrgyz statistics agency, the foreign trade turnover increased 1.5 percent in January-February 2013 and constituted $923.6 million, while the export of goods in this period decreased 15 percent and comprised $232 million.