NBR reserve up 471.5m euros in January

NBR”s foreign currency reserve increased by 471.5 million euros in January. Total reserve (gold included) reached 18.8 billion euros. The amount is 6 billion euros higher as compared with the same period of last year, with the RON having appreciated by some 7.4% since then. The considerable increase in the reserve in January, about ten times higher than the monthly average of 2005”s last quarter, comes after the central bank implemented its decision to increase the minimum mandatory reserves that commercial banks are required to set aside from resources attracted in foreign currency from 30% to 35%. And since banks continued to bring money from abroad in order to meet restrictions imposed by the NBR on foreign currency lending, total inflows to the reserve reached 913 million euros in the first month of this year. Among the streams of income were revenues from the international reserves” management through investments abroad, as well as from foreign currency transfers to the state reserve. ZF