Are the Banks holdings of foreign currency and gold part of the UKs foreign-exchange reserves?
The Bank’s holdings are available for the purposes of intervention in the foreign-exchange market. However, since they mainly arise from the Bank’s routine banking business, it would be misleading to term them “reserves.” It should also be noted that, whereas the EEA reserves are under the direction of the Treasury, the Chancellor’s statement of 6 May 1997 included provisions for the Bank to hold a separate pool of foreign-currency assets available for intervention in support of its monetary-policy objective. Will the Bank be increasing the size of its holdings by some other means? The Bank may change the size of its holdings in the management of its balance sheet or to meet operational requirements. Why are there no capital receipts from/repayments of Government Euro Treasury Bills? As announced on 5 January 1999 the Bank of England has taken over as the issuer of Euro Treasury Bill during 1999. The Government’s own Euro Treasury Bill programme was completed in September 1999. Why do
