BoA injects 159 bln lek in Q4

TIRANA, Jan 20- Albania’s central bank injected a total of 159 billion lek (1.13 billion euros / USD 1.59 billion) in the final quarter of 2010, mostly through one-week repo deals.
The Bank of Albania said in a statement it injected 145 billion lek through one-week repo deals during September-December 2010. During this period, the Bank of Albania injected an average 10.36 billion lek in one-week reverse repo deals, 10 billion lek in four one-month deals and 4 billion lek in two separate three-month reverse repo deal.
The central bank also used one-day deposits in 32 cases to regulate daily liquidity by using 0.71 billion lek on average over the final quarter of 2010, around 0.23 billion lek more than the previous third quarter. It also used one-day credits 5 times, at an average of 0.71 billion lek compared to 18 cases at an average of 0.89 billion lek in the third quarter of 2010.
The central bank said it intervened in the domestic foreign currency exchange market in the fourth quarter for the second time in a row since August 2008.
BoA sold around 304 million lek compared to 1.6 billion lek during the third quarter of 2010 in an effort to initially avoid disorders in the domestic foreign currency market and later increase foreign currency reserve.
The central bank also continued operations with the Finance Ministry buying 18.1 billion lek of foreign currency and selling 18.2 billion lek. The Bank of Albania also bought 100 million lek of foreign currency from the International Development Agency (IDA) and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD).