Central bank Governor explains what is happening with Serbian gold reserves

Photo: Filip Plavcic

The governor of the National Bank of Serbia (NBS), Jorgovanka Tabakovic, said last night that Serbia's gold reserves amount to 50.5 tons, worth 16.6 percent of the country's hard currency reserves, and that Serbia is currently a net buyer of foreign currencies.

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Tabakovic told RTS said that from 2001 to July 2012, NBS bought 4.1 tons of gold from domestic gold producer RTB Bor under the right of first refusal, while since December 2018, when RTB Bor was sold to China's Zijin, NBS bought an additional 19 tons from domestic production.

"We pay for domestically produced gold in dinars, and that is the biggest advantage. We bought 17 tons abroad - nine in 2019, three more in November 2020 and five more in July 2024," Tabakovic said, adding that the Serbian central bank paid 993 million euros for those 17 tons, while today that amount of gold is worth 1.8 billion euros.

Explaining why Serbia bought the most gold in 2019, on the eve of the Covid pandemic, she said that NBS plans in advance so as not to be caught off guard by any developments.

She said that the bank does this all the time, in order to preserve stability that must be evident on paper and visible in the treasury.

Tabakovic added that in five months of this year, NBS sold 1.35 billion euros from foreign exchange reserves on the interbank foreign exchange market.

"As of today, Serbia is again a net buyer of foreign currencies and we have replaced the 1.35 billion in order to maintain the stability of the exchange rate, today we are 55 million euros in the black," the governor said.

Tabakovic explained that gross foreign exchange reserves amount to 28 billion euros, while the net figure is 23.7 billion.

"They are diversified not only in terms of structures and currencies, but also aligned with external debts and obligations of the Republic of Serbia, because Serbia does not owe anyone one cent, one dollar, one pound, not a single dinar," concluded Tabakovic.

(Telegraf.rs/Tanjug)