News/Reserves
BOK reports 1.5 trillion won in profits for 2000
The Bank of Korea has reported after-tax profits of 1,483 billion won in 2000, down 1,696 billion won from 1999.
Bank Indonesia meets Singapore MAS, banks
Bank Indonesia Deputy Governor Miranda Gultom met top bankers in Singapore on Feb 27, 2001 to discuss Jakarta's recent curbs on offshore trading of the rupiah.
Gold lease rates tighten further, spot adds gains
Gold was reversing a recent downward trend in Europe as it rose to fix on Feb 27, 2001 at the highest level since Jan 8, 2001 building on short-covering gains made overnight with more advances on the cards, traders said.
Colombian central bank profits jump 61 pct in 2000
Colombia's Central Bank made profits of 1.45 trillion pesos, or $642.6 million, in 2000, up 61 percent from 1999, mainly due to better performance on its foreign reserves.
Slovak exchange rate mechanism to change for EU
Slovakia has to change its exchange rate regime before joining the European Union, Slovak Finance Minister Brigita Schmoegnerova said on Feb 25.
Swiss SNB gold sales total 5.4 tons in 10 days
The Swiss National Bank said on Feb 20 its gold reserves fell by CHF77.6 million to CHF34.33 billion in the 10-day reporting period to Feb. 20, 2001.
Manila c.bank taps dlr reserves for maturing debts
The Philippines' central bank will use the country's dollar reserves to pay off debts worth $400 million due to mature this week, while it works out the terms of club loans, central bank governor Rafael Buenaventura said on Feb. 19, 2001. The Philippine…
Bush adviser-Sept G7 FX intervention mistake-paper
Lawrence Lindsey, the top economic adviser to U.S. President George Bush, was quoted on Feb 17 as saying intervention by G7 central banks last September to support the euro had been a mistake.The International Herald Tribune also quoted Lindsey as…
Belgium eyes central bank gold profit for pensions
Belgium's government plans to use profits from the past transfer of gold from its central bank to the European Central Bank to start a state pension fund it had hoped to fill with proceeds from the sale of mobile telephone licences, Belgian media…
IMF-WB-ADB in bailout package for Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka has been promised a bailout package from the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to help shore up depleted foreign exchange reserves, Central Bank officials said. The officials, who declined to be named,…
Zimbabwe says to lift forex directive on Feb 15
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe said on Feb 12, 2001 a directive to commercial banks to sell all foreign currency from clients' export earnings to the central bank or the state oil company would be lifted on Feb 15. "This directive has been issued as a…
Zimbabwe orders banks to remit forex to cenbank
The government of Zimbabwe has directed commercial banks to remit 75 percent of their foreign currency to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe until further notice, bank officials said on Feb 10."There was a directive yesterday to the effect that banks should…
Greek cbank says no sales of euros to restructure
Greece's central bank said on Feb. 9, 2001 that it had not been selling euros as part of a restructuring of its foreign reserves but that some payment in foreign exchange had been made on behalf of the Greek government. "All these rumours that the Bank…
US plan to widen euro debt holding is logical-ECB
The European Central Bank said on Feb 9, 2001 plans by the U.S. monetary authorities to widen their holdings of government securities in the euro zone to include countries other than Germany were a logical step following the arrival of the euro. "This is…
Ex-head Bulgarian cbanker charged with fraud
Stoyan Shoukerov, former head of the Foreign Exchange Operations Department of the National Bank of Bulgaria (BNB), has been charged with abuse of office in connection with the refinancing of commercial banks with 49 million dollars, the Special…
Yemen foreign reserves at record high-central bank
Yemen's foreign reserves have hit $3 billion, the highest level in the poor Arab state's history, the central bank governor said in remarks published on Feb 8, 2001. "The central bank's reserves as of the beginning of 2001 reached around $3 billion and…
Russian c.bank reserves set post-Soviet record
Russia's foreign currency and gold reserves have hit a new post-Soviet high of $29.5 billion after rising almost one billion dollars in the week to Feb. 2, the central bank said on Feb. 8, 2001. The bank said reserves had risen to the new level from $28…
Taiwan's forex reserves up to $108.05bn in Jan '01
Taiwan's foreign exchange reserves at the end of January 2001 totalled US$108.05 billion, the first rally in seven months, statistics released on Feb. 7 by the Central Bank of China (CBC) showed. The CBC statistics revealed that the amount of Taiwan's…
Estonia c.bank Jan reserves down amid rules change
Estonia's central bank said on Feb. 7 its gold and foreign currency reserves dropped 14.4 percent in January 2001 from December 2000 as new regulations easing the use of commercial banks' mandatory reserves went into effect. The central bank said in a…
Czechs to mull foreign bond issue - Deputy FinMin
The Czech central bank (CNB) board should discuss at the beginning of March 2001 the possibility of tapping foreign markets for a bond issue, Deputy Finance Minister Eduard Janota said on Feb 7."We are analysing the current situation on the bond market…
Bank of Lithuania forex reserves fall by 1.9%
Lithuania's official international reserves shrank by 25.4 million U.S. dollars, or 1.9 percent, over January 2001, measuring up at 1.333 billion dollars as of Feb. 1, the central Bank of Lithuania announced on Feb. 7. The Bank of Lithuania said it sold…
Bank of Estonia total assets down 6.5% in Jan 2001
The total assets of the Bank of Estonia declined by 6.5 percent during January to 16.1 billion kroons (USD 955 mln) at the end of the January 2001. The central bank's gold and currency reserve dropped by 2.2 billion kroons or 14.4 percent to 13.2 billion…
Poland NBP implements new risk prevention methods
The National Bank of Poland (NBP) central bank and the Banking Supervisory Commission (KNB) will impose new principles of protection against the foreign currency risk and gold risk. Consequently the minimum solvency index for banks will rise from 8 to 11…
Reserves plan bad for euro system - Austria c.bank
The Austrian National Bank warned on Feb. 6, 2001, that the finance minister's efforts to get the government's hands on central bank currency reserves could undermine the credibility of the euro system. "The Austrian National Bank believes that resorting…