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2 March 1999
UK OFFICIAL HOLDINGS OF FOREIGN CURRENCY AND GOLD:
Part I: UK Government Reserves - February 1999
The overall level of the UK Government's reserves, including the forward book, rose by $6 million in February, bringing the end- February total to $35,372 million (22,090 million Pounds) compared with $35,366 million (21,521 million Pounds) at the end of January.
The underlying change in the reserves, including the forward book, was a rise of $13 million.
The underlying change excludes capital transactions that are included in the overall change. In February.
there were repayments of $10 million of Exchange Cover Scheme (ECS) borrowing; and
receipts from Government Euro Treasury Bills issued exceeded capital repayments on those maturing by $3 million.
|
$ million |
|||
| Spot | Forward | Total | |
| end- February reserves | 33,832 | 1,540 | 35,372 |
| less |
|||
| end- January reserves | 33,833 | 1,533 | 35,366 |
| OVERALL CHANGE | -1 | 7 | 6 |
| less adjustments | 7 | 0 |
7 |
| UNDERLYING CHANGE | 6 |
7 | 13 |
No intervention operations were undertaken in February.
Part II: Bank of England Holdings of Foreign Currency and Gold - February
The overall level of the Bank of England's holdings of foreign currency and gold, including the forward book, fell by $2,822 million in February, bringing the end-February total to $4,288 million (2,678 million Pounds) compared with $7,110 million (4,327 million Pounds) at the end of January.
There was no underlying change in the level of the Bank of England's holdings including the forward book.
|
$ million |
|||
| Spot | Forward | Total | |
| end-February holdings | 12,980 | -8,692 | 4,288 |
| less |
|||
| end-January holdings | 16,174 | -9,064 | 7,110 |
| OVERALL CHANGE | -3,194 | 372 | -2,822 |
| less adjustments | 3,194 | -372 | 2,822 |
| UNDERLYING CHANGE | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Revision to end-December 1998 figures
The end-December 1998 figures for the Bank of England's holdings of foreign currency and gold published on 5 January 1999 have been revised as follows:
|
$ million |
|||
| Spot | Forward | Total | |
| From | 7,428 | -4,301 | 3,127 |
| To | 8,911 | -5,720 | 3,191 |
The Underlying Change remained zero for the month of December. The adjustments to the overall change figure include the change in valuation over the month, changes in holdings arising from changes in foreign currency and gold deposits placed with the Bank by overseas central banks and other customers, changes due to the net effect of foreign exchange swaps conducted in the course of the Bank's money market operations, changes arising from the UK participation in the TARGET system, and other capital items. The foreign exchange swaps are undertaken as a supplement to the Bank's usual money market techniques to provide sterling liquidity to the market, and are purely technical in nature.
The Bank's participation in the TARGET system has given rise to euro balances with other central banks operating the system. These are in effect off-set by similar balances that the other central banks hold at the Bank. As a result they are shown net in the table above, where they account for $960 million. The gross amount is $12,733 million.
No intervention operations were undertaken in February.
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NOTES TO EDITORS
1. The Quarterly Report on UK Official Holdings of Foreign Currency and Gold, to be published on 2 June 1999 and covering the quarter ending 31 March 1999, will contain further information about the foreign-currency and gold holdings of the Government and the Bank of England. This will include, for each, the currency composition of foreign-currency assets, the size and currency composition of foreign-currency liabilities and information on intervention operations, if undertaken.
2. The Government and Bank of England figures have been produced on the basis of different accounting methodologies. Therefore, no overall total for the two is shown. Details of the accounting methodologies were included in the Quarterly Report published on 3 March 1998 (covering October-December 1997) and will be included in future Quarterly Reports.
3. The underlying change in the Government's reserves is the result of a variety of transactions, both debits and credits, including, for example, transactions for Government departments, transactions with other central banks and interest receipts and payments. For these reasons, the underlying change should not be taken as an indication of market intervention.
4. Repayments under the Exchange Cover Scheme in February were as follows:
| Organisation | $ million |
| West Midlands County Council |
5.101 |
| Northern Ireland Department of Finance | 1.735 |
| Central Regional Council | 1.254 |
| Lothian Regional Council | 1.233 |
| Other smaller repayments | 0.531 |
| Total | 9.854 |
5. The figures contained in this press release can also be obtained from the Reuters Monitor (page TREA), Bridge News (page 170), Telerate (p22494) and Topic (p6800).
6. As a result of the Easter public holidays the figures for March 1999 will be published on Wednesday 7 April.