Belarus’s international reserves, which include gold and foreign currency, rose by $89.8 million or 1.1 percent in October and amounted to $8.55 billion as of November 1, the central bank said.

In September 2021, gold and foreign exchange reserves fell by $36.8 million or 0.4 percent month-on-month to $8.46 billion.

“The growth in the level of gold and foreign exchange reserves in October was mainly due to the purchase by the National Bank of foreign currency at the auctions of the Belarusian Currency and Stock Exchange as well as an increase in the cost of monetary gold,” the bank said in a statement.

The bank said that the government had fulfilled its external and internal obligations in foreign currency in the amount of about $175 million.

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.