Therefore, the Central Bank holds foreign exchange buying auctions to build up reserves at times where foreign exchange supply increases relative to the foreign exchange demand. As meticulous in minimizing the impact on supply and demand conditions in the foreign exchange market, the Central Bank has been buying foreign exchange via transparent foreign exchange buying auctions with pre-announced terms and conditions. Although the aim is to run auctions according to the pre-announced program, in case of unexpected significant developments pertaining to the foreign exchange supply, amendments to the auction programs can be made with prior notice. 1  Dates of Monetary Policy Committee Meetings and the schedule of the release of the Inflation Report and the Financial Stability Report can be found in the Annex. BIS Review 3/2009  7  Accordingly; (i)  The maximum amount to be purchased in daily foreign exchange buying auctions was set as USD 90 million for 2008, with USD 30 million for the auction amount and USD 60 million for the optional selling amount. (ii)  However, as a result of the increased exchange rate volatility in our foreign exchange market parallel to the increased expectations of a possible stagnation in developed economies, the maximum daily amount to be purchased was reduced to USD 45 million, with USD 15 million for the auction amount and USD 30 million for the optional selling amount, as of 10 March 2008.
For example, we successfully dealt with three major attacks on the Denar exchange rate, in the spring of 2001, in the autumn of 2004 and in the spring of 2009, although these attacks were caused by quite different reasons. With this action we justified the confidence of citizens, the confidence that is the greatest treasure, the greatest reserve of the National Bank. Also, the careful study of economic theory leads to the perception that the conditions under which the weakening of the domestic currency would lead to improved net exports are not at all present in the Republic of Macedonia. The increased sales of Macedonian goods and services abroad, but at lower prices expressed in Euros, would not lead to foreign exchange inflows, which could offset the more expensive imports of energy and machinery. In the imports of the latter, we depend almost exclusively on the world rather than on the domestic prices of production, so the result could be even worsening, instead of improving the balance of goods and services. To the same end are the different, but more emphasized arguments based on empirical studies: the competitiveness of the Macedonian economy is not reduced and the research of the effective exchange rates continuously shows their adequacy. This policy of stable exchange rate has caused the inflation in the Republic of Macedonia in the last fifteen years to average 2.1 percent, versus 1.9 percent in the countries of the Eurozone.