Belarus’s international reserves, which include gold a foreign currency, decreased by 4.6 percent in June and amounted to $7.409 billion as of July 1, the National Bank said.

In June 2021, gold and foreign exchange reserves decreased by $353.8 million after growing by $485.2 million in May.

“The decrease in international reserve assets in June is mainly due to the planned repayment of external and internal liabilities in foreign currency … and a decrease in the cost of monetary gold,” the bank said in a statement.

According to the main directions of monetary policy for 2021, the volume of international reserve assets should be at least $6 billion by the end of this year.