Information notice on the gold and foreign exchange reserves of theSouth African Reserve Bank as at 30 September 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 September 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-September-2004(‘million)As at31-August-2004(‘million) Change(‘million)Gold reserves '1$1,656$1,626$30Foreign exchange reserves$10,725$10,415$310Gross reserves$12,381$12,041$340Foreign loans '1-$3,513-$3,500-$13Other-$3-$3$0Forward position '3$169$13$156International liquidity position    (net reserves)$9,034$8,551$483Rand/Dollar exchange rateMarket gold price '1Statutory gold price '2R6.4200$415.830R2,374.76R6.6800$408.375R2,443.22   At the end of September 2004 the gross gold and foreign exchange reserves amounted to US$12,4 billion and the net reserves to US$9,0 billion. The increase in gross and net reserves reflects normal market operations and customer transactions undertaken by the Reserve Bank during the month, as well as normal valuation effects. The increase in the forward position can mainly be attributed to the pre- funding of the repayment of a foreign loan by the National Treasury in October 2004. _____________________________1 Gold in US dollar terms is 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 per cent.3     The forward position is made up of unsettled foreign currency spot, forward and swap transactions. ​