Banca Naţională a României

At end-October 2003, foreign exchange reserves of the National Bank of Romania totalled EUR 6,899.3 million.

The EUR 227.3 million increase in October 2003 was the result of the following:

• EUR 185.2 million worth of purchases of the central bank from the forex market;
• EUR 135.2 million in borrowings from the IMF under the stand-by arrangement;
• EUR 11.1 million worth of incomes from international reserve management;
• EUR 190 million worth of repayments and payment of interest on external public debt, direct and bearing the guarantee of the Ministry of Public Finance;
• EUR 18 million worth of redemptions of government securities launched by the Ministry of Public Finance on the domestic market; and
• EUR 103.8 million in other net inflows (change in the foreign-exchange required reserves set up by commercial banks, surrenders to official forex reserves, bank fees and commissions, membership quotas, a. s. o.).

The gold stock stood flat at 105.3 tonnes, but following the developments in the world price of gold its value rose to EUR 1,118.6 million, taking the international reserves of the National Bank of Romania to more than EUR 8.01 billion.

Payments on external public debt, direct and bearing the guarantee of the Ministry of Public Finance, due by end-2003, work out at EUR 222 million.