Canada Monetary Reserves Decrease $1.31 Billion in December

By Paul Vieira

OTTAWA--Canada's official international reserves decreased $1.31 billion in December, the federal Finance Department said Tuesday.

As of Dec. 31, the reserves of foreign currencies and other monetary assets totaled $90.43 billion, down from $91.74 billion a month earlier.

The government reported no official intervention in the foreign-currency market in December, and there were no gold holdings at the end of the month.

All reserve figures are reported in U.S. dollars.

The finance department reported that the amount of Canada bills outstanding dropped by $1.49 billion to $4.21 billion as of the end of December. Canada bills are short-term securities sold on the U.S. money market.

Canada's finance department said the foreign-currency reserves at Dec. 31 included securities of $75.17 billion; deposits $1.65 billion; special drawing rights $8.89 billion; and reserve position in the International Monetary Fund $4.72 billion.

The $1.31 billion net decrease in the reserves in December involved:

--reserves management operations down $1.81 billion;

--return on investments down $2 million;

--foreign-currency debt charges down $56 million;

--revaluation effects up $684 million;

--net government operations down $130 million;

--no official intervention reported.

Currency composition of deposits and securities at Dec. 31 included: U.S. dollars $49.24 billion, euro $16.06 billion, pound sterling $6.83 billion, yen $4.70 billion.

Write to Paul Vieira at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

01-06-21 0851ET