The principal changes in the Bank of Latvia's assets and liabilities on the 31 January 2008 balance sheet as compared to 31 December 2007 and the reasons for these changes.
  • An increase of 23.9 million lats or 0.8% in foreign assets as the Bank of Latvia engaged in currency swaps and due to a pickup in the price of gold as it contributed to the growing value of the gold reserves of the central bank.
  • A decrease of 7.1 million lats or 5.6% in foreign liabilities due to a decrease in the lats equivalent of financial derivatives and an increase in the European Commission funds in foreign currency with the Bank of Latvia.
  • A rise of 18.1 million lats or 44.0% in domestic assets, following a 18.2 million lats increase in loans granted to credit institutions.
  • A rise of 109.7 million lats or 6.9% in domestic liabilities as a result of 57.3, 42.5 and 9.1 million lats increases in the respective balances of Government, credit institutions and other financial institutions funds with the Bank of Latvia.
  • On the liabilities side of the balance sheet, the amount of lats in circulation strongly seasonally decreased by 90.5 million lats or 8.6% mainly due to the above changes.
  • An increase of 29.9 million lats in the capital and reserves as the revaluation account balance changed due to securities market value fluctuations and retained earnings of the reporting year grew.
Vilnis Purvins
Head of the Macroeconomic Analysis Division
Monetary Policy Department
Bank of Latvia