International reserves decrease after four weeks of increases

The balance of international reserves totaled 202.273 million dollars in the week ended December 24, reported the Bank of Mexico.

This represented a decrease of $ 30 billion from the previous week ending December 17.

This is the first decrease after four weeks on the rise and a variation of 6.754 million dollars, equivalent to 3.3%, compared to the end of 2020.

The reduction was mainly the result of the change in the valuation of the central body’s international assets.

International reserves reached their historical maximum in September of this year when they totaled 205.559 million dollars, after Special Drawing Rights (SDR) were deposited that were assigned by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), for an amount of 12.117 million dollars.

International reserves are assets denominated in currencies other than the peso. They are generally government securities or bank deposits that are part of the central bank’s balance sheet.

For its part, the monetary base (banknotes and coins in circulation and bank deposits in current account at Banco de México) increased 32,856 million pesos, reaching a balance of 2.4 trillion pesos.

This figure meant an increase of 324,488 million pesos compared to the same date of the previous year, that is, an annual variation of 15.3 percent.

“The level and behavior of the monetary base partly reflects the sanitary measures implemented in the country, which would have affected the public’s demand for cash as a means of payment,” explained the bank.

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