Canada Monetary Reserves Fell $180 Million in December

Canada's official international reserves fell $180 million in December, the country's federal Finance Department reported Thursday.

At Dec. 29, the reserves of foreign currencies and other monetary assets totaled $86.63 billion, down from $86.81 billion a month earlier.

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

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.

The Finance Department reported that the amount of Canada bills outstanding decreased by $323.4 million to $2.08 billion in 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. 29 included securities $68.75 billion, deposits $7.90 billion, special drawing rights $7.98 billion, and reserve position in the International Monetary Fund $2 billion.

The $180 million net drop in the reserves in December involved:

-reserves management operations down $381 million;

-return on investments up $102 million;

-foreign-currency debt charges down $68 million;

-revaluation effects up $152 million;

-net government operations up $15 million;

-no official intervention reported.

Currency composition of deposits and securities at Dec. 29 included: U.S. dollars $51.34 billion, Euro $16.15 billion, Pound Sterling $8.17 billion, Yen $994 million.

Write to Paul Vieira at paul.vieira@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 04, 2018 09:31 ET (14:31 GMT)