Banca Naţională a României

At end-July 2003, foreign exchange reserves of the National Bank of Romania came in at EUR 6,293.7 million.

The EUR 908.5 million increase in July 2003 was the result of the following:

• EUR 690.5 million in inflows from the bond issue launched by the Ministry of Public Finance on the international market;
• EUR 174.7 million worth of purchases of the central bank from the forex market;
• an EUR 49.8 million loan granted by the European Union;
• EUR 12.6 million worth of incomes from international reserve management;
• EUR 53.6 million worth of repayments and interest payments falling due on external public debt, direct and bearing the guarantee of the Ministry of Public Finance; and
• EUR 34.5 million in other net inflows (change in the foreign-exchange required reserves set up by commercial banks, surrenders to official forex reserves, bank commissions, quotas, a. s. o.).

The gold stock stayed put at 105.3 tons, but following the developments in the world price of gold its value rose to EUR 1,069.3 million, taking the international reserves of the National Bank of Romania to more than EUR 7.40 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 609 million.