How much is the som backed by gold and currency?
Almost every country has gold and foreign currency reserves that support the exchange rate of the national currency and help combat currency fluctuations.
The som is one of the most stable currencies; it is stronger than the euro, yuan, and ruble. How much is the som backed by gold and foreign currency reserves?
The largest figure from the open data of the National Bank of the Kyrgyz Republic was taken — this is the monetary base in a broad definition. As of December 1 of last year, it amounted to 106 billion 190.4 million soms. The base includes money in circulation (the public's funds, considering the remaining balances in the cash registers of credit organizations), as well as reserves and deposits of deposit organizations.
Kyrgyzstan has a total of 10.3 tons of gold (as of November 28, 2018), and by the end of November, it was valued at 29 billion 824.9 million soms. Thus, each som from the monetary base is backed by 28 tyiyns of gold.
Gold reserves from more than a dozen currencies and SDRs (Special Drawing Rights — an artificial reserve and payment instrument of the IMF) form international reserves. They are also referred to as "gold and foreign currency reserves." At the end of November, they amounted to 2 billion 106.05 million dollars. If calculated at the official exchange rate on the last day of November (69.8475), they equal 147.1 billion soms, meaning each som is backed by gold and foreign currency reserves by 1 som and 38.5 tyiyns.