The rise followed a €897m drop in July when the Hungarian state paid €1.88 billion to Russian oil and gas company Surgutneftegas for a 21.2% stake in Hungarian peer MOL.

The data show a big, almost €1.2 rise in currency assets in August to 34.673 billion and a 330 million rise in “other reserve assets”, which contain financial derivatives and loans to non-bank non-residents, to just over €2 billion.

The end-of August international reserves were up €3.88 billion from the end of 2010 and rose €2.282 billion in one year.

Hungary’s international reserves reached an all-time high of €37.637 billion at the end of May this year, boosted by sovereign bond issues worth a combined €4 billion between March and May. The spring bond issues matched this year’s foreign expiries, of which a €1 billion bond was repaid late June, cutting the reserves accordingly. Another €1 billion bond is due on October 28, and Hungary will start repaying its IMF-led international loan late autumn, with the first €2 billion installment due to the European Union in November.

In dollar terms, Hungary’s international reserves stood at USD 54.242 billion at the end of August, up USD 2.698 billion from a month earlier, and up 9.254 billion from the end of last December, and up 9.51 billion in one year.