NOV. 24 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Kyrgyz Central Bank is spending so much cash trying to defend its som currency that it is considering selling off its stock of diamonds.
Tolkunbek Abdygulov, the Central Bank chief, said that the bank had already sold large amounts of gold and that silver and diamonds were next.
“We started selling gold this year, next year are going to add silver bullion to this and have discussed the options of even selling diamonds,” he said according to media reports. Mr Abdygulov didn’t say whether Kyrgyzstan held substantial diamond reserves or not.
The Kyrgyz Central Bank has intervened 22 times this year in the currency market. This week it spent another $7m defending the som which at one point fell nearly 5% to an all-time low of around 79/$1. After the Central Bank intervention it rose back to around 74/$1.
The Central Bank’s reserves have fallen from $2.2b at the start of the year to about $1.7b now.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)