Canada Monetary Reserves Increase $879 Million in May

Canada's official international reserves increased $879 million in May, the country's federal Finance Department reported Wednesday.

At May 31, the reserves of foreign currencies, gold and other monetary assets totaled $85.589 billion, up from $84.710 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 May and there were no gold holdings at the end of the month.

The Finance Department reported that the amount of Canada bills outstanding increased by $462.4 million to $2.942 billion in May. Canada bills are short-term securities sold on the U.S. money market.

Canada's Finance Department said the foreign-currency reserves at May 31 included: securities $66.445 billion, deposits $9.131 billion, special drawing rights $7.801 billion, and reserve position in the International Monetary Fund $2.212 billion.

The $879 million net increase in the reserves in May involved:

-reserves management operations up $207 million;

-return on investments up $267 million;

-foreign-currency debt charges down $95 million;

-revaluation effects up $504 million;

-net government operations down $4 million;

-no official intervention reported.

Currency composition of deposits and securities at May 31 included: U.S. dollars $50.478 billion, Euro $16.202 billion, Pound Sterling $7.886 billion, Yen $1.010 billion.

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

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 05, 2017 08:37 ET (12:37 GMT)