The Irish Central Bank is to receive almost €25 million from the European Central Bank (ECB) as part of its entitlement to a share in the European bank's profits and earnings on foreign currency reserves.
The ECB yesterday announced its net profit fell to €1.220 billion in 2002 from €1.822 billion in 2001.
"The main reason for this reduction was the fall in bothUS dollar and euro interest rates during the year," it said.
The bank said it earned a total of €995 millionin net interest income in 2002, including €727 million fromits share of euro banknotes.
Excluding the income from euro notes, the ECB would haveearned just €268 million, compared with €771 million in2001.
The net profit figure excludes a payment of €1.141 billionto euro zone national central banks in remuneration forthe foreign reserves they transferred to the ECB. Thisremuneration totalled €1.509 billion in 2001.
The Irish Central Bank comprises 1.05 per cent of the euro system, and receives that proportion of profits and earnings.