YEREVAN, April 8. /ARKA/. Armenia’s gross international reserves will amount to about $1.5 billion by the end of the first quarter 2015, Haykakan Zhamanak (Armenian Time) says referring to the press office of the central bank.

Hence, the international reserves will still be in line with the international practices and will be sufficient for covering the imports and the servicing of short-term (up to one year) commitments for more than five years.

According to the newspaper, the regulator expects the international reserves to be replenished by about $510 million in 2015, of it about $300 million through second euro bond issue, and the remaining part from other receipts.

At the same time, the foreign debt load is expected to decrease substantially, by about 30%.

The newspaper says the number of commercial banks’ foreign currency accounts in the central bank is expected to increase due to the regulator’s recent actions to replenish commercial banks’ capital and to promote forex inflow.

The reduction in reserves by $762 million during 2014 was facilitated by a number of factors, particularly by decrease of $305 million in balances on foreign currency correspondent accounts, external debt servicing worth about $260 million and the central bank’s sale/purchase deals worth $310 million to ensure financial stability and to curb the inflation, says Haykakan Zhamanak. –0--