BELGRADE (Serbia), October 11 (SeeNews) – Foreign exchange (FX) reserves held by the central bank of Serbia stood at 16.502 billion euros ($16.011 billion) at the end of September, up 626.7 million euros compared to the previous month, the central bank announced on Tuesday.

The increase in foreign exchange reserves is mainly the result of central bank activity in the national foreign exchange market and inflows based on the sale of domestic currency securities, the National Bank of Serbia (SNB) said in the communicated.

The volume of transactions on the interbank foreign exchange market fell to 852.3 million euros in September, down 44 million euros from the previous month.

The value of the dinar against the euro was virtually unchanged in September, with the dinar strengthening nominally by 0.2% against the euro in the first nine months of the year.

NBS bought 480 million euros on the interbank foreign exchange market in September and sold 425 million euros net since the start of the year, in order to maintain the relative stability of the dinar’s exchange rate against the euro.

Net foreign exchange reserves (total reserves minus banks’ foreign exchange balances in respect of reserve requirements and other needs) amounted to 13.551 billion euros at the end of September, up by 420.1 million euros compared to the end of August .

($ = 1.0306 euros)