Romanian foreign exchange reserves rose by EUR 1 billion on the month to EUR 32.58 billion in September, boosted by money from the International Monetary Fund and the European Commission, the Romanian Central Bank (BNR) said Friday.  End-August, hard currency reserves reached EUR 31.55 billion.

The central bank said foreign exchange inflows stood at EUR 2.57 billion in September, including a sixth disbursement from a EUR 13 billion stand-by agreement with the IMF and the third tranche from an EU assistance loan worth EUR 5 billion. In September, Romania received about EUR900 million from the IMF and EUR1.2 billion from the EU. Total outflows during the month reached EUR1.54 billion.

The central bank's gold holdings stayed flat at 103.7 metric tons, but their value adjusted for international gold price fell slightly in September to EUR 3.2 billion, from around EUR 3.24 billion a month earlier.

Mediafax