This table contains data on international reserves and other foreign currency assets denominated in US dollars, euro, yen and other currencies; along with holdings of International Monetary Fund Special Drawing Rights (IMF SDRs), IMF reserve tranche and gold.
Data are largely available from Q3 1997, although the start dates of other series are either prior to (or after) this point. Publication of data will usually occur on the 21st working day of the month in Bank of England foreign currency liabilities and assets (Table D5.1) and is on a quarterly basis with a two month lag.
The data are held by the Risk Management Division of the Bank of England.
The euro assets category includes any assets denominated in the ‘legacy currencies’ of the euro area countries (e.g. Deutschemarks, French francs etc.). The currencies of countries that are not currently participating in European Monetary Union are included in the Other currencies category.
The liability due to SDR allocation reflects the allocation of SDRs that the UK government could be obliged to repurchase from the IMF (in the event of the winding up of the IMF SDR Department or in other circumstances). The treatment of the allocation differs from that of the ONS publication, the Pink Book. In the Pink Book, the SDR allocation is shown as a memorandum item.
Other liabilities comprise liabilities arising from repo agreements, forward and swap positions and unsettled trades.
The assets and liabilities are marked-to-market using end-period market prices and exchange rates.
Due to the exclusion of the net marked-to-market value of swaps and forwards, the total in this table is different from that given in UK International reserves (Table D4.1).