Macro and Politics

* The CBT will release weekly foreign portfolio flows, money & banking statistics, and international reserves for the period of January 24 – 31 today @ 14:30 local time. Based on our calculations from the CBT’s analytical balance sheet, we estimate that during the week of January 24 – 31, the net international reserves dropped approximately by USD2bn to USD71.7bn and the gross FX reserves decreased by USD1.6bn to USD166.1bn. To recall the data from the previous week: During the week of January 17 – 24, the equity and the bond market (excluding repo transactions) witnessed a foreign inflow of USD345.4mn and USD382.9mn, respectively. Furthermore, the foreigners’ share in the total bond stock climbed further to 8.7% from 8.5%, which stands for the highest level since February 2020. The residents’ FX deposits increased by USD748mn (gold accounts excluded, EUR/USD parity adjusted) in the period of January 17 – 24, while the residents’ total FX deposits (including gold, price adjusted) rose by USD586mn in the week of January 17 – 24. Moreover, the CBT’s gross FX reserves climbed further by USD4.3bn to USD167.7bn, while the net international reserves rose by USD2.2bn to USD73.7bn. Net reserves excluding swaps also increased by USD3.6bn to USD62.9bn.