The Central Bank has negative international net reserves by at least US$1 billion, various consulting firms have calculated.

A report by consulting firm Ecolatina published on Friday put them at negative US$1.1 billion, while one by 1816 calculated they were negative US$1 billion.

Net international reserves are calculated by subtracting the Central Bank’s liabilities —such as the China swap and the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) special drawing rights— from its gross international reserves. It is a way of measuring the monetary entity’s actual firepower given that the net reserves are the ones freely available to, for example, intervene in the currency exchange market. Currently, gross reserves are at US$34 billion, but the bank’s liabilities are higher.