Hungary FX reserves rise to EUR 35.69 billion in March

BUDAPEST: Hungary's foreign currency reserves rose to 35.69 billion euros at the end of March from 33.82 billion euros at the end of February, the National Bank of Hungary said on Thursday.

The NBH said the reserves were boosted by proceeds from the sale of dollar-denominated bonds worth a total of $3.75 billion last month.

"The rise in reserves is due to the dollar issue of the debt agency AKK which was swapped to euros (EUR 2.6 bln), while the decline in some items are linked to debt servicing," the bank said in a reply to e-mailed questions.

Reserves have doubled since October 2008, when Hungary secured a loan package worth nearly 20 billion euros from the International Monetary Fund, the European Union and the World Bank.