European Central Bank

Banca d’Italia

Banco de España

Banco de Portugal

Bank of Greece

Banque Centrale du Luxembourg

Banque de France

Banque Nationale de Belgique

Central Bank & Financial Services Authority of Ireland

De Nederlandsche Bank

Deutsche Bundesbank

Oesterreichische Nationalbank

Suomen Pankki

Schweizerische Nationalbank

Sveriges Riksbank

In the interest of clarifying their intentions with respect to their gold holdings, the undersigned institutions make the following statement:

1. Gold will remain an important element of global monetary reserves.

2. The gold sales already decided and to be decided by the undersigned institutions will be achieved through a concerted programme of sales over a period of five years, starting on 27 September 2004, just after the end of the previous agreement. Annual sales will not exceed 500 tons and total sales over this period will not exceed 2,500 tons.

3. Over this period, the signatories to this agreement have agreed that the total amount of their gold leasings and the total amount of their use of gold futures and options will not exceed the amounts prevailing at the date of the signature of the previous agreement.

4. This agreement will be reviewed after five years.

European Central Bank
Press and Information Division
Kaiserstrasse 29, D-60311 Frankfurt am Main
Tel.: +49 69 1344 7455, Fax: +49 69 1344 7404
Internet: http://www.ecb.int