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National Bank explains Belarus’ strategy on gold, forex reserves

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MINSK, 27 May (BelTA) – Belarus’ strategy on gold and foreign-exchange reserves was outlined by First Deputy Chairman of the Board of the National Bank of Belarus Aleksandr Yegorov on the air of the First News TV channel, BelTA has learned.

Aleksandr Yegorov stressed that building up reserves is always a matter of finding a carefully calibrated balance between the future and the present. “Reserves are not a warehouse; they are a working tool of our policy. Above all, we use them to smooth out sharp exchange-rate fluctuations,” he said.

“We have moved from simply maintaining the level of reserves to aggressively accumulating them during calm periods. Today’s $15 billion is the result of learning from past mistakes. We realized that the buffer must not only be strong: it must have a margin for the most unpredictable events,” the bank’s first deputy chairman noted.

According to him, in spring 2026 external factors caused the Russian ruble to strengthen abnormally quickly against the dollar and euro, which affected the Belarusian market as well. Export-oriented companies were also selling more of their foreign-currency earnings, resulting in an excess supply of foreign currency.

“To prevent this surplus from causing an undesirable strengthening of the Belarusian ruble, which would make it harder for our exporters to sell their products abroad, the National Bank bought up the excess currency and added it to the reserves. In April 2026 alone, the National Bank purchased almost $500 million,” Aleksandr Yegorov emphasized.

In total, in January-April 2026, net foreign-currency sales by the population amounted to about $640 million, and this trend continues.

“The currency sold by the public does not disappear: a significant portion is bought by the National Bank and added to the gold and foreign-exchange reserves. In this way, people’s personal savings indirectly strengthen the country’s financial safety cushion. This is the healthiest and most proper source of economic growth,” Aleksandr Yegorov concluded.

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