Banca Naţională a României

At end-September 2003, foreign exchange reserves of the National Bank of Romania ran at EUR 6,672 million.

The EUR 10.5 million increase in September 2003 was the result of the following:

• EUR 115.6 million worth of purchases of the central bank from the forex market;
• EUR 66.4 million worth of net inflows from government securities issues launched by the Ministry of Public Finance on the domestic market;
• EUR 12.8 million worth of incomes from international reserve management;
• EUR 53.1 million worth of repayments and payment of interest on external public debt, direct and bearing the guarantee of the Ministry of Public Finance; and
• EUR 131.2 million in other net outflows (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 stayed put at 105.3 tonnes, but following the developments in the world price of gold its value dropped to EUR 1,114.2 million, taking the international reserves of the National Bank of Romania (foreign exchange plus gold) to more than EUR 7.78 billion.

Payments on external public debt, direct and bearing the guarantee of the Ministry of Public Finance, due by end-2003, amount to EUR 459 million.