Central Bank balance sheet up 6 %

The Central Bank’s bi-weekly balance sheet reached $74.51 billion by mid-June 2012, up by 6 percent from the beginning of the year. Gold reserves rose by a monthly 4.17 percent to $14.98 billion as gold prices increased to reach $1,627.10 per ounce by mid-June. A swap took place between the Finance Ministry and the Central Bank in which the latter swapped $2 billion worth of local-currency treasury bills in exchange for dollar-denominated bonds resulting in a climb of 6 percent month-on-month in the Central Bank’s foreign assets (excluding gold) to reach $34.99 billion, recording a 17.55 percent increase compared to the same period in 2011. The swap also resulted in a 14 percent month-on-month decrease in the Bank’s securities portfolio, which fell to $11.1 billion. Furthermore, loans to the public sector fell by 45.48 percent to $64.58 million year-on-year while loans to the financial sector jumped by 30.81 percent to $1.52 billion. From TheDailyStar