BoA injects Euro 2 bln in Q3 2011

TIRANA, Jan. 31 – Albania’s central bank says it injected a total of 284.28 billion lek (Euro 2 billion) in the third quarter of 2011, with the overwhelming majority in one-week repo deals.
The Bank of Albania said in a statement it injected 276.3 billion lek through one-week repo deals during July-Sept. 2011. During this period, the Bank of Albania injected an average 21.25 billion lek in one-week reverse repo deals, 5 billion lek in two separate three-month reverse repo deals and 2.98 bln lek in one-day deals.
The central bank also used one-day deposits in 10 cases to regulate daily liquidity at an average of 0.18 billion lek, down 0.02 billion lek compared to the previous second quarter of 2011. It also used one-day credits 9 times, at an average of 0.71 billion lek compared to 13 cases at an average of 0.23 billion lek in the previous quarter.
During the third quarter of 2011, the central bank said it participated in the domestic foreign currency exchange market buying hard currency from second-tier banks in order to increase its net foreign currency reserve. BoA said it sold 125.2 billion lek during July-Sept. 2011.
The central bank also continued foreign currency operations with the Finance Ministry mainly under swap contracts while external debt payments were carried out with the ministry’s funds.
The Bank of Albania also bought 70 million lek of foreign currency from the International Development Agency (IDA) and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD).