BUDAPEST: The National Bank of Hungary’s (MNB) international reserves stood at €36.907 billion at the end of March, up €500 million from a month earlier, fresh data published by the bank show. Reserves dropped by €1.824 billion in February due to the redemption of a 1.5 billion US dollar bond, issued by the state of Hungary in 2005 and carrying a 4.75% coupon.
In January, the reserves soared a marked €3.652 billion in the biggest increase since Hungary had reached a credit agreement with the International Monetary Fund at the height of the global financial crisis in 2008.
Hungary’s National Bank also said yesterday that it decided to gradually build a small Chinese bond portfolio “for economic policy and foreign currency asset diversification purposes”. “Following the decision, a small RMB bond portfolio relative to the size of the Bank’s reserve assets may be built which would not materially influence foreign exchange reserve adequacy,” the MNB said in a statement posted on its website.
