Switzerland and China cut their international reserves the hardest last year
Switzerland lost the most international reserves in the ten months of 2022, RIA Novosti has calculated according to data from the national central banks.
Thus, from January to October, Swiss reserves in monetary terms decreased by $226.6 billion, so the country dropped out of the list of trillionaires. The second-largest loser was China, whose reserves shrank by $211.5 billion, and Japan, which was impoverished by $211.2 billion, was in third place. Singapore’s international assets dropped by $135.6 billion and India’s by $102.5 billion.
Russia is in sixth place with a loss of $83.4 billion. It is followed by Hong Kong (minus $79.7 billion), South Korea (minus $49.1 billion), Thailand (minus $44.1 billion) and Great Britain (minus $42.9 billion).
The Czech Republic burned $41.7 billion in international reserves, Brazil $36.7 billion, Israel $24.4 billion, Germany $23.9 billion, Italy $20.8 billion, France $19.2 billion and the US $18.7 billion.
In percentage terms, Sri Lanka (minus 46%) and Pakistan (minus 43%) recorded the most serious declines in reserves. New Zealand’s assets lost 38%, Mongolia 36%, Singapore 32% and Panama 31%. Chile’s reserves shrank by 26% and those of the Czech Republic, Greece and Mauritius by 24%.
Switzerland lost 20% of its reserves, China lost six, Japan lost 15 and Russia lost 13%.
Only 15 of the economies surveyed were able to build up reserves, but none managed to add more than ten billion dollars. Only Saudi Arabia ($7.8 billion), Turkey ($2.3 billion), Qatar ($1.9 billion) and South Africa ($1.1 billion) saw the biggest increases.
The study was based on information from the central banks of the world’s one hundred economies, which as of mid-December 2022 had published data for October.
