Information notice on the gold and foreign exchange reserves of theSouth African Reserve Bank as at 30 June 2004 This notice provides details of the US dollar equivalent of the level of the Reserve Bank’s gold and foreign exchange reserves as at 30 June 2004 published today in the Bank’s Statement of Assets and Liabilities. The notice also provides details of the level of outstanding foreign loans and any foreign exchange forward position.  As at30-June-2004(‘million)As at31-May-2004(‘million) Change(‘million)Gold reserves '1$1,569$1,574-$5Foreign exchange reserves$9,782$8,898$884Gross reserves$11,351$10,472$879Foreign loans '1-$3,737-$3,747$10Other-$3-$3$0Forward position '3$279$1,293-$1,014International liquidity position    (net reserves)$7,890$8,015-$125Rand/Dollar exchange rateMarket gold price '1Statutory gold price '2R6.2700$394.125R2,249.33R6.5000$395.50R2,279.54   At the end of June 2004 the gross gold and foreign exchange reserves amounted to US$11,4 billion and the net reserves to US$7,9 billion. The increase in the gross reserves is attributable to normal market operations and customer transactions undertaken by the Reserve Bank during the month, and also reflects the proceeds of the US$1,0 billion international bond issue by the National Treasury at the end of May 2004, which was settled on 2 June 2004, less US$370 million devoted to the repayment of a National Treasury foreign loan during June. The decline in the forward position mainly reflects the fact that the unsettled proceeds of the US$1 billion National Treasury loan were recorded in the forward position last month, but have now passed into the gross reserves. The small decrease in the net reserves includes the effect of the repayment of the National Treasury loan referred to above.  _____________________________1             The gold in US dollar terms are reflected at middle market rates while in rand terms for balance sheet reporting the gold holdings are reflected at the statutory price. For reporting purposes all foreign currency figures have been converted to US dollar at middle market rates at month end.2             The statutory gold price is the average of the last 10 London gold price fixings less 10%.3     The forward position is made up of unsettled foreign currency spot, forward and swap transactions. ​