Serbia's gross foreign exchange reserves increase 2.5% y/y to EUR 11.18bn at end-December 2013 after contracting 2.7% y/y the month before, lifted by Serbia’s USD 1bn Eurobond issue at end-November, the central bank (NBS) said in a statement. They covered more than seven months of imports as well the M1 money supply by 327%, the bank said. The gross FX reserves went up 8% m/m in December, following a 0.6% m/m rise in November.

The largest outflows came from the payment of maturing euro-denominated government securities (EUR 99.1mn), settlement of liabilities to foreign creditors in the amount (EUR 65.1mn) and payment of liabilities to the IMF (EUR 58.0mn).

The biggest inflows, on the other hand, resulted from the sale of government securities on the international and domestic market amounting to EUR 844.7. Inflows from banks’ allocations under foreign exchange reserves requirements stood at EUR 101.3mn whereas disbursements of credits and grants equalled to EUR 20.8mn in December.

Net FX reserves, defined as FX reserves less banks’ required reserves and IMF drawings, totalled EUR 7,804mn at end-December, up 10.9% m/m. Trading volumes on the interbank foreign exchange market rose by EUR 365.6mn m/m to EUR 776.9mn in December. This brought the overall market turnover in 2013 at EUR 9.2bn.

In December, the local dinar currency weakened against the euro by a nominal 0.5% m/m after it has maintained its value against the euro in November. The central bank bought EUR 180mn and sold EUR 10mn on the domestic currency market to mitigate the excessive daily volatility of the exchange rate in December.