Where The National Bank Of Belarus Lost A Billion Dollars
- 11.04.2026, 14:40
Reserves are dwindling.
In March, the reserves of the Belarusian National Bank broke a series of records. Moreover, with a loud crack. If on March 1, they amounted to $16.4 billion, then as of April 1, they fell to $15.2 billion. However, the National Bank is not discouraged and is thinking about where to put the rest. For example, in the distant country of Oman.
Why the strategy of sitting on gold did not work - in the new issue of the program "Optimum" on the YouTube channel "Belarusians and the market".
Reserves are melting down
"The reduction in the volume of gold and foreign exchange reserves is associated with the decline in gold prices in international financial markets," says the National Bank.
That is, the reserves remained as they were, but fell in price. Just as for many months in a row they became more expensive due to the fact that gold became more expensive. At the same time, the amount of gold did not change in physical volumes. As the National Bank had 54 tons of gold ten years ago, it still has 54 tons of gold. And it was very convenient. At least, while gold was becoming more expensive. You could sit on gold, get rich and tell everyone how good you are.
"The chosen policy of managing gold and foreign exchange reserves has brought us a very good income," said the head of the National Bank Roman Holovchenko in May last year.
Although in fact the whole policy was to do nothing. All these records are the result of external, in no way dependent on the National Bank. And the National Bank was sure that it would be like this forever.
"Current forecasts do not suggest a decline in gold prices, that is, a significant reduction in gold reserves is not expected," - said the head of the National Bank Roman Golovchenko in an interview with the magazine Bankovskiy Vestnik on March 25 this year.
A week after the head of the National Bank speculated that gold would not become cheaper, the National Bank announced that it had lost a billion dollars because gold had become cheaper.
Risky business
In fact, even after the collapse in March, the National Bank's reserves will be enough to pay for imports for more than three months. That is, by all concepts, nothing threatens the stability of the Belarusian currency market. The National Bank has more than enough reserves to prevent a sharp collapse of the ruble.
But there is one risk, which can nullify all this stability. And very quickly. Because the main risk for the currency, financial and all other stability of Belarus is not the world situation, not price fluctuations and not even the Iranian-American war.
The main risk is the peculiarities of the economic policy of the Belarusian authorities. Since last fall, Alexander Lukashenko has been trying to get the National Bank to start spending reserves on something. Well, the National Bank couldn't resist in the end.
In the same interview, in which he said that gold won't get cheaper, Roman Golovchenko boasted that the National Bank has already started to finance some investment projects at the expense of its reserves and will finance even more.
"Of course, such financing is exceptional, point financing," said Golovchenko.
The point of investment
Golovchenko didn't say what projects we're talking about. But there are some hints. On April 9, Roman Golovchenko met with the chief investment director of the Oman Investment Agency Ibrahim Al-Eisri.
"We are discussing issues of bilateral cooperation and specific initiatives," he said.
What specific initiatives, he again did not say specifically. But in December last year, during his visit to Oman and Algeria, Alexander Lukashenko offered these countries to think for three. To build a joint venture to produce complex fertilizers in Oman. Because Oman has phosphates, Algeria has gas. And Belarus has none of this. But the Belarusian National Bank suddenly had a record gold and foreign exchange reserves.
"Money today, and even more so tomorrow, means nothing. You see what is happening. Terrible inflation in the world's major reserve currencies. Therefore, life pushes us to invest, to put this money into specific projects," said Lukashenko during his visit to Oman.
So the Belarusian authorities do not just want to invest our money in the construction of a factory in the distant country of Oman. The Belarusian authorities want to spend our gold and foreign currency reserves on a factory in the faraway country of Oman. Reserves, the meaning of which is that they cannot be spent. Unless, of course, you care about currency and financial stability.