John Perry
Ceist:76 Mr. Perry asked the Minister for Finance his views on the future use of Central Bank reserves. [21311/02]
Vol. 557 No. 1
76 Mr. Perry asked the Minister for Finance his views on the future use of Central Bank reserves. [21311/02]
123 Mr. M. Higgins asked the Minister for Finance his plans to acquisition funds from the Central Bank's foreign currency reserves; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21281/02]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 76 and 123 together.
When discussing the Central Bank's reserves, it is important to specify the reserves in question. The official external reserves are principally composed of the foreign currency assets of the Central Bank. As of end September 2002, these stood at €5.35 billion. The management of these foreign currency assets is subject to any guidelines issued by the ECB under Article 31(3) of the statute of the European system of central banks and of the European Central Bank to ensure that these operations will not interfere with the monetary and exchange rate policies of the euro area.
In the Central Bank's balance sheet, the bank's total assets, including its external reserves, have a counterpart in liabilities. These liabilities include bank notes in circulation and credit institution and Government deposits. However, the bank does have accounting reserves which have been accumulated over the years from income earned by its operations. As of end July 2002, they stood at €1,283 million. The bank also has a revaluation account which reflects unrealised gains from valuation changes in its assets. This acts as a contingency provision against currency and other market fluctuations. As of end July 2002, the value of the revaluation account was €825 million.