Serbia's 2009 euro-denominated hard currency reserves rose by 2.4 billion euros to a preliminary 10.6 billion euros, mainly fuelled by the country's external borrowing from multilateral lenders, the central bank said.

In December alone, official reserves rose by 563 million euros, as the government drew a 350-million-euro loan tranche from the International Monetary Fund, a further 50 million euros in macro-economic assistance from the European Union, as well as 49.5 million euros in loans from the European Investment Bank.

Part of December's growth stemmed from banks setting aside another 116 million euros in mandatory reserves, the National Bank of Serbia said in a statement.

In 2009, the central bank spent 272 million euros on servicing foreign debt and another 221 million euros in repaying debts to domestic creditors.

The dinar lost 1.2 percent against the euro in December, weakening by 7.6 percent in the whole of 2009, when total traded volumes in the interbank market fell to 7.1 billion euros from 23.7 billion in 2008. Traded volumes more than doubled in December to one billion euros.

Source: Reuters, Balkans.com Business News