Banca Naţională a României

At end-July 2004, foreign exchange reserves of the National Bank of Romania came in at EUR 8,615.7 million.

The EUR 852.5 million expansion in July 2004 was the result of the following:

• EUR 629.3 million worth of purchases by the central bank from the forex market;
• EUR 207.4 million inflows under PSAL and SAPARD programmes;
• EUR 18 million worth of incomes from international reserve management;
• EUR 91.5 million worth of principal repayments and payment of interest on external public debt, direct and bearing the guarantee of the Ministry of Public Finance;
• EUR 89.3 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 stayed put at 105.1 tonnes, but following the developments in the world price of gold its value decreased to EUR 1,092.6 million, taking the international reserves of the National Bank of Romania (foreign currency and gold) to over EUR 9.7 billion.

By end-2004, payments due on external public debt, direct and bearing the guarantee of the Ministry of Public Finance, amount to EUR 516.4 million.