Banca Naţională a României

At end-2004, foreign exchange reserves of the National Bank of Romania came in at EUR 10,838.5 million.

The EUR 916.5 million increase in December was due to the following:

• EUR 611.1 million worth of inflows from the privatisation of SNP Petrom;
• EUR 176.4 million worth of purchases by the central bank off the forex market;
• EUR 7.7 million worth of incomes from international reserve management;
• EUR 104.4 million worth of principal repayments and interest payments on external public debt, direct and bearing the guarantee of the Ministry of Public Finance;
• EUR 225.7 million in other net inflows (change in the foreign-exchange required reserves deposited by commercial banks, surrenders to official forex reserves, bank fees and commissions, membership quotas, a. s. o.).

The gold stock stood flat at 105.1 tonnes, but following the developments in the world price of gold its value diminished to EUR 1,084.5 million, taking the international reserves of the National Bank of Romania (foreign currency and gold) to over EUR 11.92 billion.

In 2005, payments due on external public debt, direct and bearing the guarantee of the Ministry of Public Finance, amount to EUR 1,339 million.